Virginia Schad, PharmD

Adverse drug events associated with sulfasalazine are likely responsible for lower persistence and adherence rates in patients with RA initiating triple therapy compared with combination therapy.

Baricitinib has demonstrated an acceptable safety profile in adults with moderate to severe rheumatoid arthritis.

Patients with early arthritis may benefit from induction therapy with infliximab plus methotrexate.

Continued low disease activity in patients with rheumatoid arthritis is associated with atherosclerosis and heart dysfunction.

Exposure to passive smoking does not appear to increase the risk of developing rheumatoid arthritis.

Moderate- to high-intensity aerobic and resistance exercise improved physical fitness in older adults with rheumatoid arthritis.

Celecoxib demonstrated better overall gastrointestinal safety than ibuprofen or naproxen in patients with arthritis concurrently receiving esomeprazole and low-dose aspirin or corticosteroids.

The use of corticosteroids at doses of ≥5 mg/d was identified as a significant risk factor for herpes zoster development in patients with RA.

The dorsal 4-finger technique is a reliable method to examine metacarpophalangeal joints in rheumatoid arthritis.

Supervised, land-based aerobic exercise may reduce fatigue in patients with rheumatoid arthritis.

Attaining low RA disease activity may reduce risk for serious infections.

Risk factors for predicting cardiac events are different in rheumatoid arthritis and psoriatic arthritis, indicating that cardiovascular risk reduction strategies should be disease-specific.

Patients with established rheumatoid arthritis and osteoarthritis appear to have similar subgingival microbial communities.

Researchers compared the incidence of serious infection among patient taking biologic medication for RA.

Investigators compared safety and efficacy of tofacitinib, disease-modifying antirheumatic drugs, tumor necrosis factor inhibitor, and non-tumor necrosis factor biologics in patients who were treated with methotrexate for rheumatoid arthritis.

Investigators sought to determine the various types of fractures in patients using glucocorticoids in rheumatoid arthritis.

Discontinuing methotrexate for 2 weeks following flu vaccine may improve the immunogenicity of the vaccine in patients with rheumatoid arthritis.

Investigators analyzed the composition of the autoantibody profile in rheumatoid arthritis and determined whether there is an influence on treatment outcomes.

Investigators sought to determine the risk of losing remission, low disease activity or radiographic progression when discontinuing or tapering bDMARD in RA.

Prolonging the dosing interval of adalimumab in individuals with rheumatoid arthritis may not result in loss of disease control.

Treatment of osteoporosis with teriparatide is linked to greater bone formation compared with zoledronic acid.

Compared with growth hormone treatment, 1 year of placebo after attainment of adult height does not decrease bone mineral density in young adults with Prader-Willi syndrome.

Researchers used phenotype-wide association studies to uncover associations in men and women with systemic lupus erythematosus.

Investigators examined the incidence of serious infectious events during the use of certolizumab pegol vs other TNFi for RA in the United States.

Erosions may also be detected in patients with other arthritides and in symptom-free individuals.

A systematic review analyzes the direct medical costs associated with the treatment of RA.

Epratuzumab improved systemic lupus erythematosus disease activity in patients with associated Sjogren syndrome.

Gastric bypass surgery can have damaging effects on bone mass as early as 6 months postoperatively.

Sclerostin and antisclerostin-IgG may be novel biomarkers to assess the presence of axial joint involvement in patients with IBD.

Data support the integration of ultrasound-guided methods along with arthroscopy into clinical trial protocols requiring sequential joint sampling for subsequent histological and molecular analysis.