Spondyloarthropathies News

Spondyloarthritis in pregnancy is associated with an increased risk for several adverse outcomes, including preterm birth, emergency cesarean section and epidural use, according to data published in Arthritis Care & Research.

The incidence of peripheral and extra-rheumatic symptoms, as well as disease burden, remain similar over a period of at least 5 years between patients with radiographic and nonradiographic axial spondyloarthritis, according to data published in the Annals of the Rheumatic Diseases.

Patients with ankylosing spondylitis demonstrate a distinct fecal microbiota signature that is linked to levels of fecal calprotectin, but not other clinical parameters, according to data 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.

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.

Officials from the Nebraska Department of Health and Human Services have issued a public health advisory following multiple reports of serious adverse events in patients who were treated with unapproved stem cell products, particularly those marketed as containing exosomes.

New treatments and trial designs, particularly focused on patients with refractory disease, remain among the top unmet needs in rheumatology in 2019, according to expert opinions culled from the Advances in Target Therapies annual meeting and published in the Annals of the Rheumatic Diseases.

Radiographic axial spondyloarthritis, or axSpA appears to have less impact on patient-reported outcome measures than the nonradiographic form of the disease, regardless of sex, according to data published in Arthritis Research & Therapy.

The FDA has approved the fourth biosimilar to infliximab, infliximab-axxq, for all eligible indications of the biologic product.

When journalist Ben Hammersley coined the word “podcast” in 2004, he was attempting to put a name to the phenomenon resulting from the timely convergence of widely available MP3 player technology, inexpensive audio software and weblog culture — a renaissance of radio programs that could be downloaded and played at the listener’s convenience, anytime or anywhere.