Rheumatoid arthritis (RA) patients initiating tocilizumab may not have an increased risk of malignancies (excluding non-melanoma skin cancer) compared to a tumor necrosis factor inhibitor (TNFi) or abatacept.
Patients with end-stage renal failure undergoing total hip replacement may have improved functional outcomes, including fewer postoperative complications and better survival.
Postmenopausal women taking high doses of vitamins B6 or B12 may be increasing their risk for hip fracture.
Researchers recently assessed the most common reasons RA patients aged ≥ 65 years stop using seven biological disease-modifying antirheumatic drugs (DMARDs); the top two were lack of effectiveness and toxic adverse events. Among the medications included in the study, abatacept had the lowest discontinuation rate for those reasons.
Rituximab (Rituxan) could help reduce the risk of RA in patients with seropositive palindromic rheumatism, a rare condition that commonly precedes RA.
A small study found no association between juvenile systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE) and celiac disease.
Black SLE patients may have significantly higher mortality rates compared to white SLE patients.
Patients with RA and osteoarthritis (OA) reported significantly higher levels of pain, disease activity, and functional disability compared to RA patients without OA.
Patients with difficult-to-treat RA are twice as likely to have cardiovascular and respiratory system diseases than those whose disease is controlled.
Tocilizumab and low-dose prednisolone do not affect the pharmacokinetics of tacrolimus in RA patients. However, the use of tocilizumab was associated with reduced serum 4β-hydroxycholesterol.