• The EULAR 2021 Podcast

    This EULAR 2021 correspondent's podcast revisits six congress state-of-the-art presentations on rheumatology topics, and research findings where the discipline overlapped with pediatrics, gastroenterology, and virology.

  • The risks of polypharmacy in rheumatoid arthritis

    Polypharmacy in RA is associated with increased disease activity, an increased risk of serious adverse events (AEs), and a decreased treatment response.

  • Systemic lupus erythematosus: increased risk of severe infection

    Patients with SLE have an increased risk of developing severe infections compared with non-SLE cases. Moreover, 21% of the mortality in SLE is related to these infections.

  • Gene-diet interaction associated with the risk of gout

    Adhering to the healthy Dietary Approaches to Stop Hypertension (DASH) diet decreased the risk of gout in women. This effect was more pronounced in genetically predisposed individuals.

  • Risankizumab meets primary and ranked secondary endpoints in PsA

    Risankizumab treatment leads to better-than-placebo signs and symptoms in active PsA patients with inadequate response or intolerance to 1 or 2 biologic therapies or at least one DMARD therapy.

  • Updates on COVID-19 vaccines in patients with rheumatic disease

    A study investigated the safety profiles of COVID-19 vaccines in patients with rheumatic and musculoskeletal diseases (RMD) finding that these vaccines are safe and well tolerated in these patients.

  • Rituximab or JAKi therapies in rheumatoid arthritis increase the risk of severe COVID-19

    Severe COVID-19 outcomes risk in RA patients is 4 times higher for rituximab, and 2 times higher for JAK inhibitor users compared to TNF inhibitor users. This was not found for abatacept or IL-6-inhibiting DMARDs.

  • Efficacy and safety of secukinumab in juvenile idiopathic arthritis

    Secukinumab significantly increased the time leading to, and reduced the number of flares in children with enthesitis-related arthritis (ERA) and juvenile psoriatic arthritis (JPsA) when compared with placebo.

  • Mavrilimumab outperforms placebo in severe COVID-19

    In patients with severe COVID-19 pneumonia and hyper-inflammation, mavrilimumab was associated with decreased mechanical ventilation and death compared with placebo.

  • PET/CT is a reliable outcome measure of disease activity in large-vessel vasculitis

    PET/CT showed a discriminating value in measuring disease activity in large-vessel vasculitis (LVV). This finding was consistent in giant cell arteritis (GCA) and Takayasu’s arteritis (TAK) subgroups.

  • Ultrasound: promising biomarker for treatment response in very early RA

    In patients with VERA on methotrexate + tocilizumab combination therapy, ultrasound imaging was able to detect treatment response in an earlier stage than clinical examination scores.

  • Remote management of RA is a feasible alternative for outpatient follow-up

    During the COVID-19 pandemic, rheumatoid arthritis remote management is a feasible alternative for routine outpatient follow-up according to a prospective, longitudinal real-world study of UK patients.

  • Prognostic factors for minimal disease activity in early psoriatic arthritis revealed

    MDA following a treat-to-target strategy in early PsA can be predicted by a combination of factors, including Tender Joint Count, PGA of disease activity, pain, and the absence of enthesitis and dactylitis.

  • Passive smoking associated with an increased risk of rheumatoid arthritis

    Exposure to passive smoking in childhood and/or adulthood is associated with RA increased risk, according to the large prospective E3N-EPIC cohort study of French women.

  • No effect of FMT in active peripheral psoriatic arthritis

    Fecal microbiota transplantation (FMT) as an add-on therapy to methotrexate was inferior to treat active PsA, compared to sham in a proof-of-concept, randomized, placebo-controlled FLORA trial.

  • Ultrasound for microimplants

    Researchers are developing a new generation of microimplants which can be charged completely wirelessly using ultrasound waves.

  • Air pollution predicts decreased response to biological treatment in rheumatic diseases

    According to a case-crossover study, a poor response to bDMARDs in CIA patients is associated with air pollution; adding to further evidence to its relevance as a factor in rheumatic diseases.

  • EULAR 2021: The focus is on arthritis and rheumatism treatments

    In 2021, the EULAR Congress will focus on People with Arthritis and Rheumatism in Europe (PARE) and Health Professionals in Rheumatology (HPR). A total of over 2,700 abstracts were submitted.