Dr Stanley Cohen, of the University of Texas, Southwestern Medical School in Dallas, reviews key abstracts on the management of patients with rheumatoid arthritis (RA) that were presented at this year's American College of Rheumatology (ACR) annual meeting, held virtually because of COVID-19.
Dr Cohen highlights the updated ACR pharmacologic recommendations for the treatment of RA, including the need to maximize methotrexate therapy as well as the avoidance of glucocorticoids and their associated long-term toxicity.
Dr Cohen discusses two abstracts addressing the use of the recombinant zoster vaccine (RZV) in patients with RA, including research from Sweden comparing immunologic response in patients taking JAK inhibitors with that of patients not on disease-modifying therapy. He also reports on a safety study from the Cleveland Clinic which followed patients after they received RZV and measured their rate of flares over 3 months.
Additionally, he discusses recent trial data on the incidence of and risk for venous thromboembolism events in patients with RA enrolled in the upadacitinib phase 3 clinical trial program.
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Cite this: A Review of ACR Convergence Abstracts on Rheumatoid Arthritis - Medscape - Dec 01, 2020.
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