Rheumatoid Arthritis News

Factors that impact TNF inhibitor prescribing decisions for patients with rheumatoid arthritis can range from cost pressures, to the pharmaceutical industry, to hospital culture to the desire for more clinical autonomy, and may contribute to regional variation in clinical practice, according to findings published in BMC Rheumatology.

The accumulation of multimorbidity following a rheumatoid arthritis diagnosis can account for excess total and cardiovascular mortality among women, according to data published in Arthritis Care & Research.

Although infliximab doses can frequently increase threefold or more for patients with rheumatoid arthritis, the savings from the current price of its biosimilar still substantially offsets the cost of alternative infused TNF inhibitor biologics with no biosimilar, according to findings published in Arthritis Research & Therapy.

Among patients with rheumatic diseases, treatment with any biologic increases the risk for tuberculosis, both reactivation and new-onset, with an incidence rate among biologic users that is 10 times higher in South Africa than in European countries, according to data published in Annals of the Rheumatic Diseases.

Among those with rheumatoid arthritis who previously had an inadequate response to biologic DMARDs, upadacitinib, in doses of either 15 mg or 30 mg, increased quality of life and resulted in more patients reaching clinically meaningful improvements, according to data published in Arthritis Research & Therapy.

The rheumatology community lost clinician and educator Calvin R. Brown, MD, on Dec. 1, 2019. He was 66 years old. His final years were spent at the Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine, practicing rheumatology and training fellows in the specialty.

The 2019 update of the American College of Rheumatology recommended rheumatoid arthritis disease activity measures now includes a stipulation to allow for use of the multibiomarker disease activity score, a key update from the previous iteration.

Intense dust cloud inhalation, as well as PTSD, experienced by first responders and community members present at the Sept. 11 terrorist attack in New York are associated with a significant increased risk for systemic autoimmune disease, including rheumatoid arthritis and lupus, according to findings published in Arthritis & Rheumatology.

Among patients with seropositive rheumatoid arthritis, high-dose trivalent inactivated influenza vaccines are safe and more immunogenic than the standard-dose quadrivalent version, according to findings published in The Lancet Rheumatology.

Although the risks for specific cancers and infections were similar between abatacept and other biologic and targeted synthetic DMARDs among patients with rheumatoid arthritis, a slight increase in total cancer risk associated with the drug requires additional research, according to data published in Arthritis Research & Therapy.