Interest in COVID-19 Vaccination High Among Patients With Systemic Rheumatic Disease

Doctor administers COVID-19 vaccine to patient

Daniel H. Solomon, MD, MPH, Sara K. Tedeschi, MD, MPH, and colleagues surveyed patients with systemic rheumatic disease (SRD) about their attitudes toward COVID-19 vaccination. They report high interest and a high trust in physician recommendations about vaccination.

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Nearly Half the Cost of Opioid Prescribing for Knee Osteoarthritis Is Unrelated to Care

Elena Losina, MD, PhD, of the Department of Orthopaedic Surgery, and colleagues estimate the total lifetime cost of opioid use among patients with symptomatic knee osteoarthritis is $14 billion. 47% of that cost is unrelated to pain management or other clinical care.

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SGLT2 Inhibitors Have Similar Benefits to GLP-1 Receptor Agonists for Myocardial Infarction or Stroke but Greater Benefits for Hospitalization for Heart Failure in Patients with Type 2 Diabetes

Exenatide diabetes drug molecule

Practice guidelines recommend considering sodium–glucose cotransporter-2 (SGLT2) inhibitors or glucagon-like peptide-1 receptor agonists (GLP-1 RAs) for patients who have both diabetes and atherosclerotic cardiovascular disease (CVD). The choice between the drug classes is left to the physician, except that SGLT2 inhibitors are advised for patients with a history of heart failure.

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Childhood Exposure to Parental Smoking Increases Risk of Rheumatoid Arthritis in Adulthood

A hand and wrist x-ray showing severe arthritis of the wrist or carpus and Boutonniere deformity of the thumb.

Active cigarette smoking is the best-established modifiable risk factor for the development of rheumatoid arthritis (RA), but whether passive smoking can be linked to RA is unclear.

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Perspectives: Immune-mediated Inflammatory Disease Therapeutics

woman using a wheelchair in a park;

Over the past two decades, the treatment of immune-mediated inflammatory diseases (IMID) has moved from broad-spectrum immune modulators to agents that have exquisite specificity. Substantial toxicity is no longer the norm, and remission or low states of disease activity are typical outcomes.

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Brigham and Women’s Rheumatology at ACR Convergence 2021

Ellen M. Gravallese, MD

Faculty of the Division of Rheumatology, Inflammation and Immunity at Brigham and Women’s Hospital played a prominent role at the American College of Rheumatology’s annual Convergence conference, which ran virtually from November 3 through November 10, 2021.

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Rheumatology-Dermatology Collaboration Enhancing PsA Care

Elbow with rash

Management of psoriatic arthritis (PsA) can be notoriously complicated due to factors such as heterogeneity of disease manifestations and comorbidity considerations. Despite the emergence of promising new therapies, there remains considerable variation in quality of care from diagnosis through treatment and follow-up management.

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Study Finds RA not Associated With Increased Type 2 DM Risk

Person doing finger prick for diabetesDoes rheumatoid arthritis (RA) raise the risk of developing type 2 diabetes mellitus (DM)? Previous epidemiologic studies have drawn varying conclusions. Now, a large population-based cohort study bolsters the case that RA in fact is not associated with a heightened risk.

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Highlights of Abstracts From ACR Convergence 2020

rheumatology graphic

The American College of Rheumatology’s annual Convergence conference, which took place Nov. 5–9, featured significant contributions from Brigham and Women’s Hospital physicians and scientists. The tally included over 120 abstracts: two plenary presentations, 36 oral presentations, one late-breaking poster and 86 poster presentations.

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Exploring Potential Cardiac Toxicity of Hydroxychloroquine

bottle of spilled pills

Hydroxychloroquine (HCQ) is a mainstay of therapy for rheumatic diseases such as systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE) and rheumatoid arthritis (RA). However, its use in treating COVID-19 patients in recent months has raised concerns over a possible link to acute cardiac toxicity.

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