Medications

Screening for and treatment of latent tuberculosis infection are important preventive strategies in people receiving biologic therapies for rheumatic diseases, irrespective of the drug class, South African researchers report.

Sangeeta Sule gives a pediatric rheumatologist’s view on a trial looking at tofacitinib for the treatment  of polyarticular juvenile idiopathic arthritis and the potential implementation of the results in the clinic (2:55).

Tofacitinib is effective for reducing the risk for disease flare in patients with polyarticular juvenile idiopathic arthritis, results of a randomized phase III study show.

An analysis of two UK juvenile idiopathic arthritis registries suggests no significant difference in uveitis risk among patients treated with the TNF inhibitor etanercept relative to methotrexate.

Click through for more details on this approval

Click through for more information on the approval

Juvenile idiopathic arthritis patients taking DMARDs at the time they conceive do not have an increased risk for major adverse pregnancy outcomes, research suggests.

Adalimumab, used with or without concurrent methotrexate, appears to be well tolerated among children with polyarticular‐course juvenile idiopathic arthritis, 7-year data from the STRIVE registry show.

Click through for more information on the approval

The biologic treatment era has led to “remarkable prognostic improvement,” relative to the methotrexate era, for children with juvenile idiopathic arthritis, show data reported in Arthritis Research & Therapy.

Approximately half of the 21 patients with juvenile idiopathic arthritis-associated uveitis in the APTITUDE trial experienced an improvement in uveitis assessment with 12 weeks of tocilizumab treatment.

Juvenile idiopathic arthritis patients with an inadequate response to tumor necrosis factor inhibitor therapy have similar outcomes regardless of whether they switch to a second agent from the same class or an alternative biologic, research suggests.

Comment on: Belimumab approved for pediatric lupus in the USA

The ACR and the National Arthritis Foundation have published two guidelines on juvenile idiopathic arthritis, one providing recommendations for the treatment of polyarthritis, sacroiliitis, and enthesitis, and the other focusing on detecting and treating uveitis.

Click through for more details

Click through for more information on this announcement