Results from a retrospective analysis suggest that cytomegalovirus seropositivity at ANCA-associated vasculitis diagnosis is an independent risk factor for developing venous thromboembolism.

Older people with rheumatoid arthritis are not at increased risk for hospitalization with infection when receiving targeted therapy with biologics or JAK inhibitors rather than methotrexate, Japanese researchers report.

People on immunomodulatory therapy have similar rates of breakthrough SARS-CoV-2 infection to healthy controls, with a reduced risk seen in those with prior infection or seroconversion after vaccination, research suggests.

The most common infection type was of the respiratory tract (37%).

Patients with autoimmune or inflammatory rheumatic diseases may be at increased risk for breakthrough SARS-CoV-2 infection following vaccination, suggests research from two separate cohorts.

A meta-analysis carried out by the COVID-19 Global Rheumatology Alliance suggests that people with rheumatic and musculoskeletal diseases have a higher risk for SARS-CoV-2 infection and mortality than the general population.

Nevertheless, they say that “the low numbers of SARS-CoV-2 infection post-vaccination in both registries are encouraging.”

Throughout their lifetime, 8.6% of patients had experienced sepsis and 9.3% had been isolated because of an infection.

The risk was two- to sixfold higher for “overall severe infection, tuberculosis, pneumonia and herpes zoster compared with the general population or healthy controls,” say the researchers.

Among people with rheumatoid arthritis, having more comorbidities at the time of biologic DMARD initiation is associated with an increased risk for serious infection, researchers report.

Latent tuberculosis infection is uncommon among people receiving secukinumab for psoriasis, psoriatic arthritis, or ankylosing spondylitis, shows a pooled analysis of clinical trial data.

Among patients with rheumatoid arthritis receiving stable DMARD treatment, long-term glucocorticoid use is associated with a dose-dependent increase in the risk for serious infection, with a “small but significant” risk even at the lowest doses, researchers report.

Among patients with rheumatoid arthritis receiving stable DMARD treatment, long-term glucocorticoid use is associated with a dose-dependent increase in the risk for serious infection, with a “small but significant” risk even at the lowest doses, researchers report.

Jasvinder Singh and John Cleveland, both from the University of Alabama at Birmingham, used the US National Inpatient Sample (NIS) to identify people with gout who were hospitalized with a primary diagnosis of pneumonia, sepsis/bacteremia, urinary tract infection (UTI), skin and soft tissue infection (SSTI), or opportunistic infection between 1998 and 2016.

In all, 3140 patients experienced the primary composite outcome of hospital admission for serious infection including bacterial, viral, or opportunistic infection over 100,790 person–years of follow-up, giving an incidence rate of 3.12 events per 100 person–years.

Rheumatoid arthritis patients treated with tofacitinib in routine clinical practice have a higher risk for serious infections, including herpes zoster, than those given other biologic agents, researchers report.

Results of a meta-analysis suggest that treatment with interleukin inhibitors may be associated with an increased risk for infections and cancer among people with rheumatic diseases.

These findings equate to numbers needed to harm of 67 for one additional serious infection over 24 weeks, 250 for one additional opportunistic infection over 54 weeks, and 250 for one additional case of cancer over 28 weeks, explain Bilal and colleagues.

In the case of PM/DM, for example, the risk for developing an opportunistic infection was about 5.4 times greater in the first year than at 5 or more years after diagnosis.