Rheumatology
From the Journals
Vaccination cuts long COVID risk for rheumatic disease patients
Although it’s possible the higher proportion of Omicron cases in vaccinated patients accounted for lower rates of long COVID, differences in...
Feature
Joint replacements: Should there be BMI cutoffs?
Patients with a high BMI are at a greater risk for complications during and after surgery, but some experts argue that strict BMI cutoffs are...
Conference Coverage
NSAIDs for knee osteoarthritis may worsen pain over time
Researchers find no long-term benefit and worse inflammation and cartilage quality over 4 years.
Conference Coverage
Sarilumab effective for polymyalgia rheumatica in phase 3 trial
Relapsing patients treated with the biologic had significantly higher sustained remission and reported better quality of life, compared with the...
Conference Coverage
Intensive gout treatment meets urate goal, lowers tophi burden
A randomized trial of therapy to intensively lower urate for patients with gout showed benefits in meeting serum urate goal, tophus size, and...
Guidelines
New ACR vaccination guideline: Take your best shot
Vaccinate patients with rheumatic and musculoskeletal disease against flu and other vaccine-preventable disease whenever possible, experts say.
Conference Coverage
Denosumab may halt erosive hand OA progression
In a randomized clinical trial, denosumab seemed to halt progression of erosive hand osteoarthritis, but had a delayed impact on pain.
Conference Coverage
Randomized trial finds community-based weight-loss programs ease knee OA pain
Participants who dieted and exercised in a community-based randomized trial had reductions in knee pain at 18 months; controls also improved...
Conference Coverage
StopRA trial: Hydroxychloroquine doesn’t prevent or delay onset of rheumatoid arthritis
A randomized clinical trial found that hydroxychloroquine was no more effective than placebo at preventing or delaying onset of rheumatoid...
Conference Coverage
Opioids increase risk for all-cause deaths in RA vs. NSAIDs
The incidence of all-cause mortality was higher for patients with rheumatoid arthritis who started on opioids rather than NSAIDs for pain control...
Conference Coverage
Prednisone, colchicine equivalent in efficacy for CPP crystal arthritis
In an open-label, randomized trial, one in five patients on colchicine had diarrhea, tipping the safety scales in favor of prednisone.