Spondyloarthropathies News

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The NIH recently commissioned $55 million for studies to investigate precision medicine. While it remains to be seen how many of those dollars will be used in rheumatic diseases, the message is clear: Medicine is moving steadily toward personalized approaches.

Patients with ankylosing spondylitis who are younger, treated sooner after diagnosis and were exposed to fewer NSAIDs demonstrated an improved clinical response to adalimumab, according to findings presented at the American College of Rheumatology Annual Meeting.

Investigators of this study found more favorable outcomes in the Oswestry Disability Index for patients with spondylolisthesis who underwent transforaminal lumbar interbody fusion compared with posterolateral spinal fusion; however, this trend was not seen for patients with either spinal stenosis or adjacent segment disease.

Secukinumab demonstrated continued improvement in the treatment of psoriatic arthritis and was well-tolerated among patients in a 3-year extension of the FUTURE 1 study, according to data presented at the American College of Rheumatology Annual Meeting.

Treatment with statins may reduce mortality risk among patients with ankylosing spondylitis or psoriatic arthritis, according to findings presented during the plenary session at the American College of Rheumatology Annual Meeting.

Uveitis and inflammatory bowel disease as extra-articular manifestations of axial spondyloarthropathy appear to be more common in women, according to data presented at the ACR Annual Meeting.

WASHINGTON — Cardiovascular disease-preventing medicines were infrequently used among patients with inflammatory joint disease, according to a study performed by researchers in Norway and presented at the American College of Rheumatology Annual Meeting.

A 59-year-old woman with a 7-year history of Sjögren’s syndrome, treated symptomatically, has had three episodes of cutaneous vasculitis, successfully treated with oral steroids. She now presents with complaints of a slowly progressive enlargement of her right parotid gland. Her physical exam reveals dry mucous membranes and an enlarged, firm, non-tender right parotid gland.

Autoimmune disorders such as ankylosing spondylitis, psoriatic arthritis and rheumatoid arthritis not only cause significant pain and disability related to a patient’s joints, but also increase a patient’s risk for other systemic conditions, including cardiovascular disease, that must be monitored and treated.