The Handoff: Your Week in Rheumatology News – 1/27/17

–Robert Steinbrook, MD, editor-at-large of JAMA Internal Medicine and faculty at the Yale University School of Medicine, and colleagues ask: how do clinicians advance patient needs during the new presidential administration?

–The Annals of the Rheumatic Diseases published an update to the Assessment of SpondyloArthritis Society (ASAS)-European League Against Rheumatism (EULAR) management recommendations for patients with axial spondyloarthritis. The collaborative document provides guidance on non-pharmacological and pharmacological management in patients with axial spondyloarthritis, reflecting the opinion that axSpA encompasses 1 disease spectrum that includes both radiographic axSpA and non-radiographic axSpA.

–The American College of Rheumatology (ACR), in partnership with the EULAR, has released its first ever official classification criteria for Sjogren syndrome. The new classification criteria for Sjögren syndrome are based on 5 objective tests/items.

–A systematic review of patients with systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE) published in Arthritis Care & Research suggests that there is a substantial burden of medication non-adherence in patients with SLE.

–The US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) granted tocilizumab Priority Review Designation for treatment of giant cell arteritis (GCA), which means the FDA plans a review decision within 6 months rather than the standard 10-month review. The FDA’s decision to give tocilizumab priority review was based on positive results from the GiACTA study (ClinicalTrials.gov Identifier: NCT01791153).

–The FDA has also granted clearance for a second generation osteoporosis detection device. Bindex is a point-of-care device that measures the cortical bone thickness of the tibia.

—Intra-articular corticosteroid injections for knee osteoarthritis (OA) may improve pain and physical function for up to 6 weeks, but the quality of available evidence is low, according to a Cochrane data analysis published in JAMA.

–Andy Slavitt, former acting administrator of the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, has set out to lead a bipartisan effort to save the Affordable Care Act, according to a Politico report.

–Data from a retrospective cohort study found that about 1 in 5 non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drug (NSAID) adverse drug reactions is in fact a hypersensitivity reaction.

–The Scripps Research Institute has been awarded $1.8 million from the National Institutes of Health/National Institute of General Medical Sciences to undertake drug development for conditions like heart disease and rheumatoid arthritis (RA).

–The Bay Area Lyme Foundation has launched the Lyme Disease Biobank, providing researchers with blood and urine samples from patients across the country with acute Lyme disease.

–Research published in Experimental Biology and Medicine suggests that gene expression in patients with postmenopausal osteoporosis (PMOP) may be used as biomarkers to monitor PMOP progression and fracture risk.

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