Gout

Adding immunomodulatory therapy to pegloticase for gout improves treatment persistence, according to data from a large observational registry presented at ACR Convergence 2021.

Among patients with arthritis who engaged in physical activity in the past month, about 71% reported walking as one of their two most frequent activities, followed by gardening and weightlifting, according to CDC researchers.

An estimated 58.5 million adults in the United States — nearly one-quarter of the country’s adult population — had arthritis, while 25.7 million demonstrated arthritis-related activity limitations, during 2016 to 2018, according to data.

Reviewing old data and challenging conventional wisdom may yield benefits in managing gout flares, according to a presenter at the 2021 Congress of Clinical Rheumatology-West.

Among patients with arthritis, receiving exercise recommendations from a physician is “critical” to meeting physical activity guidelines and relieving symptom burden, regardless of race and ethnicity, researchers noted in BMC Public Health.

A group of researchers have developed a rule that can help identify patients at high risk for gout flare during a hospital stay, according to data published in Rheumatology.

Although allopurinol, febuxostat and pegloticase are still relied on to do the heavy lifting in lowering urate for patients with gout, an “influx of newer agents” may help expand effective disease management, according to a presenter here.

Data show that cannabis use tripled from 2014 to 2019 among patients with rheumatic disease. Experts said this may be due to patients’ dissatisfaction with their health. A review of the data was the top story in rheumatology last week.

There is a lack of high-quality treatment studies in patients hospitalized for gout flares, and zero prospective studies on ways to improve urate-lowering therapy use and prevent readmission, according to data published in Rheumatology.

Although there are few studies on the subject outside of North America and Europe, the available data suggest that a minority of patients with gout receive treat-to-target care worldwide, according to data.