Rheumatoid Arthritis News

The 2018 Rheumatic Disease Report Card: Raising the Grade on Rheumatology Care in America released today by the American College of Rheumatology demonstrates that access to affordable rheumatology care varied considerably from state to state, with most states averaging a “C” grade.

Under Medicare Part D drug benefits, the biosimilar infliximab-dyyb was only 18% less expensive than the infliximab reference product, exceeding $14,000 annually, according to a research letter published in JAMA.

We begin with a 24-year-old previously healthy female presenting with gradual worsening — over the last few months — migraine-like headaches accompanied by nausea but no vomiting. She was in a usual state of health when she started getting headaches, that were described as intermittent with a deep ache sensation. The headaches were unilateral and would switch from left to right and sometimes occur between the eyes. The patient described the severity as 8 out of 10. The headaches did not wake her from sleep, and she was unsure of what triggered them. She denied hearing loss, tinnitus, numbness or tingling of extremities, weakness, joint pain, joint swelling or rashes. She reported no new medications.

FORT WORTH, Texas — Comorbid depression and rheumatoid arthritis are associated with increased adverse outcomes, including pain, inflammation and disability, but only about 1% of patients with rheumatoid arthritis are screened for depression, according to a poster presenter at the Rheumatology Nurses Society Annual Conference.

Just 32.1% of reproductive-age women with rheumatic diseases use any kind of prescription contraception, while at the same time more than 70% use at least one fetotoxic medication, according to findings published in Arthritis Care & Research.

Johns Hopkins Hospital has been recognized by U.S. News & World Report’s Best Hospitals Survey as the top-ranked hospital in the country for rheumatology for the 2018 to 2019 year.

Exposure to secondhand smoke during childhood may increase the risk for rheumatoid arthritis as an adult among patients who later become light smokers — and potentially those who never become smokers — according to findings published in Rheumatology.

Although findings suggest that TNF inhibitors are not associated with an increased risk for cancer recurrence in patients with rheumatoid arthritis, meaningful increases in risk could not be completely ruled out, according to researchers published in the Annals of Internal Medicine.

FORT WORTH, Texas — When filling prescriptions for hydroxychloroquine for rheumatoid arthritis, systemic lupus erythematosus or juvenile idiopathic arthritis, rheumatology nurses should coordinate with their patients’ ophthalmologists and be direct about the information they need regarding possible eye-related adverse effects, according to presenters at the Rheumatology Nurses Society Annual Conference.

More than one-third of indigenous people in Latin America have a musculoskeletal disorder, and the prevalence of rheumatoid arthritis in these communities — particularly the Qom in Argentina — is among the highest reported in the world, according to findings published in the Annals of the Rheumatic Diseases.