Rheumatoid Arthritis News

Costs for the 49 top-selling brand-name prescription drugs in the United States increased by a median 76% between 2012 and 2017, with all but one drug displaying regular annual or biannual price increases, according to an analysis of pharmacy claims data published in JAMA Network Open.

Intensive treatment fails to result in more sustained, DMARD-free remission, compared with routine, up-to-date care, among patients with rheumatoid arthritis, according to data published in Arthritis Research & Therapy.

Fear and anxiety related to their disease, in addition to infertility, may impact family sizes of women with inflammatory arthritis, according to data published in ACR Open Rheumatology.

DESTIN, Fla. — The classical findings of the rare condition Felty’s syndrome, which include rheumatoid arthritis, splenomegaly and neutropenia, can make differentiating between Felty’s and T-cell large granular lymphocyte leukemia very difficult, according to Jonathan A. Aun, DO, of the Keesler Medical Center, at Keesler Air Force Base in Biloxi, Mississippi.

In the ever-changing landscape of the United States health care system, rheumatologists need a voice. They need a voice in managing the complex web of drug pricing structures, a voice in developing clinical guidelines, and, on a fundamental level, a voice in simply communicating with all the players involved in running the day-to-day operations of a rheumatology practice.

Among seven biologic treatments for rheumatoid arthritis, tocilizumab exhibited the lowest discontinuation rate due to lack of effectiveness, while abatacept had the lowest rate based on toxic adverse events and achieved the lowest overall discontinuation rate, according to recent data in Arthritis Research & Therapy.

Patients with rheumatoid arthritis who used glucocorticoids and underwent knee or hip arthroplasty were at an increased risk for adverse events, according to a recent study published in the Annals of Internal Medicine.

Increasing the dose interval of subcutaneous tocilizumab is associated with a lower chance of maintaining remission after 24 weeks, and is not linked to improved tolerability, among patients with rheumatoid arthritis, according to data published in Arthritis & Rheumatology.

A pair of studies by researchers at the Hospital for Special Surgery demonstrate that newly discovered subsets of cells found in joint tissue among patients with rheumatoid arthritis, and how they interact, could potentially explain why only certain individuals respond to current treatments, according to a press release.

DESTIN, Fla. — Interstitial pneumonia with autoimmune features may potentially be the newest category of undifferentiated connective tissue disease, according to Judith James, MD, PhD, of the Oklahoma Medical Research Foundation and the Oklahoma University Health Science Center.