The factors that influence the safety of biologic therapy are numerous. Amongst them, increasing age is a potential risk factor, moreso if you also consider the polypharmacy, comorbidities and longer disease duration inherent in an elderly group of rheumatoid arthritis (RA) patients.
A recent JAMA Internal Medicine report on pharmaceutical-sponsored meals disclosed that a $20 meal provided by a drug company could yields 2-5 times more prescriptions. (Citation source http://buff.ly/2cd58i0)
Dr. Jack Cush reviews highlights from this week in RheumNow:
Disease flares are common in rheumatoid arthritis (RA), often causing patients to seek additional care, if not medication.
The frequency of flares varies amongst studies in different populations. But the consequence of flares has only recently been studied.
The 2010 NHANES study suggests that the overall prevalence of osteoporosis (OP) in the USA is ~10% or 10.2 million older adults (> 50 yrs) had osteoporosis.
Researchers at the National Institutes of Health, led by Dr. Dan Kastner, have led the way in the discovery and understanding of numerous autoinflammatory diseases.
In 2015, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) updated the warnings of all marked bisphosphonates to include the risk of osteonecrosis of the jaw (ONJ) and atypical femoral fractures (AFF).
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