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Top Medical News
Febuxostat appears to be safe in patients with gout and fatty liver disease (FLD), but the presence of diabetes and colchicine use may increase the risk of hepatotoxicity, suggests a new study.
Rheumatoid arthritis carries a lifetime risk of undergoing knee or hip replacement of about 20 percent, which is approximately twofold higher than in the general population, a study has found.
First-line treatment with prednisolone (PSL) plus calcineurin inhibitor (CNI) has resulted in significantly better progression-free survival (PFS) in patients with aminoacyl-tRNA synthetase antibody–positive polymyositis/dermatomyositis-associated interstitial lung disease (ARS-PM/DM-ILD) compared with PSL monotherapy, according to a recent study. However, no significant difference is seen in terms of long-term survival among patients.
Patients with giant cell arteritis (GCA) receiving glucocorticoid (GC) plus methotrexate (MTX) have a nearly twofold lower rate of subsequent relapse compared to those taking GC alone, a study has shown.
In pregnant women with well-controlled rheumatoid arthritis (RA) and juvenile idiopathic arthritis (JIA), tumour necrosis factor inhibitor (TNFi) may be discontinued before gestational week 20 without the risk of disease worsening, as shown in a study.
Biweekly treatment with pegloticase yields favourable effects on systolic and diastolic blood pressure as well as mean arterial pressure in gout patients who maintain a persistently low serum urate, and these effects are independent of changes in renal function, according to a posthoc analysis of two trials.
In a US-based registry, only a few patients with psoriatic arthritis (PsA) on tumour necrosis factor inhibitor (TNFi) have achieved remission using the Clinical Disease Activity Index (CDAI) criteria, according to a new study, noting that female sex, obesity, comorbidities and education are associated with achieving remission.
Special Reports
With the objective of establishing a Malaysian consensus on the use of topical NSAIDs in the management of musculoskeletal pain, this meeting brought together experts from various backgrounds, ie, rheumatology, pharmacy, orthopaedics and general medicine. At the meeting, Dr Mary Suma Cardosa delivered a talk on the pathophysiology and effective management of pain, while the lecture by Dr Yeap Swan Sim focused on the management of musculoskeletal and soft-tissue pain. This article presents excerpts from the expert meeting and features the consensus statements agreed during the meeting.
At the 47th Annual Scientific Meeting/Annual General Meeting of the Malaysian Orthopaedic Association, Dr Algis Jovaisas discussed important clinical considerations when it comes to choosing between nonselective nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (nsNSAIDs) and selective COX-2 inhibitors (coxibs) for the management of acute pain.
At the recent launch of Nurofen® Express by Reckitt Benckiser Malaysia, Ms Joyce McSwan spoke on the importance of managing tension-type headache (TTH), highlighting the roles of drug and non-drug approaches in improving treatment outcomes.
At the International Osteoporosis Foundation Regionals – 6th Asia-Pacific Osteoporosis Meeting in Singapore, Professor Olivier Bruyère shared about the algorithm for the management of knee OA by the European Society for Clinical and Economic Aspects of Osteoporosis, Osteoarthritis and Musculoskeletal Diseases (ESCEO). MIMS Doctor also spoke to Professor Jean-Yves Reginster, president of ESCEO about this algorithm and the role of SYSADOAs in the control of pain and prevention of disease progression.
Conference Reports
The human anti-interleukin (IL)-1β monoclonal antibody canakinumab continued to show optimal control of disease activity (ie, one or no new flare, no uptitration) in patients with colchicine-resistant familial Mediterranean fever (crFMF), TNF* receptor-associated periodic syndrome (TRAPS), and hyper IgD** syndrome (HIDS)/mevalonate kinase deficiency (MKD) after 112 weeks, according to results from the fourth phase of the CLUSTER*** trial presented at EULAR 2018.
Treatment with the immunomodulatory agent canakinumab reduces the risk of gout flares by more than half in patients with atherosclerosis, according to the post hoc analysis of the CANTOS* trial.
More than half of the increase in cardiovascular disease (CVD) risk associated with osteoarthritis can be attributed to the use of nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs), suggests a study presented at the EULAR 2018 Congress.
Pregnant women with rheumatoid arthritis (RA) are more likely to have premature delivery or baby of low birth weight compared with women without RA, according to a study presented at EULAR 2018.
Patients with rheumatoid arthritis have a similar incidence of cancer regardless of whether they are treated with tocilizumab or tumour necrosis factor (TNF) inhibitors, according to a study presented at EULAR 2018.
Patients with ankylosing spondylitis (AS) derived a greater benefit from tumour necrosis factor (TNF) inhibitors in terms of less radiographic progression when they also took non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs), suggests a cohort study presented at the EULAR 2018 Congress.
Although majority of Takayasu arteritis (TA) pregnancies are uneventful and have favourable foetal and maternal outcomes, pregnant TA patients with active disease are at increased risk of developing maternal complications, particularly cardiovascular events, according to a study presented at the European League Against Rheumatism (EULAR) Congress 2018.
