Finally got around to tackling the JAKi this week.  I decided to focus on SELECT-COMPARE, which pitted upadacitinib (selective JAK1 inhibitor) against adalimumab and placebo.  I briefly discuss other JAKs and my thoughts on the future of this area. Get the paper and others at ebrheum.com and follow me @ebrheum! 

Back this week to discuss an interesting paper in the NEJM.  Lots of interesting issues, most notably historical controls and their limitations.  Find all my work at ebrheum.com! 

This week I'll discuss an important paper in systemic sclerosis, the recent SENSCIS trial that compared 150mg nitedanib to placebo.  I wind up coming down pretty hard on this drug; I think it's hype has vastly outpaced its utility. Get the paper itself at ebrheum.com and follow me on @ebrheum to give feedback! 

Welcome back!  This is the second episode of Rheum4Debate, an oxford-style debate show for the field of rheumatology.  In this podcast we'll tackle the question of bactrim prophylaxis in patients receiving cyclophosphamide.  The motion was: 

“Bactrim prophylaxis should be prescribed to all patients with SLE who are receiving cytoxan and over 20mg of prednisone daily”

Dr. Pankti Reid (@panktireid) argued FOR the motion and Dr. Anisha Dua (@anisha_dua) argued AGAINST the motion. 

PLEASE be sure to fill out the post debate poll and let us know what you think! You can find it on my twitter account @ebrheum!

Exciting episode this week!  This is the FIRST of a new podcast series entitled Rheum4Debate, an Oxford style debate show for the field of rheumatology.  We are planning to release one episode a month; each have a moderator and one physician on each side of a controversial motion.  Be sure to VOTE on whether you agree or disagree with the motion AFTER you have listened to the podcast! Get the episode at ebrheum.com!

This week a nice case control study out of Mayo challenged my own bias against MTX in GCA.  This prompted a deep dive into the literature, including 3 RCTs and meta analysis.  At the end of the day, I'm more (almost) fully convinced that MTX offers a (mediocre) benefit. 

Follow me on twitter (@ebrheum) to share your thoughts and find all of the PDFs at my Box on ebrheum.com. 

The FDA recently approved romosozumab for high risk post menopausal osteoporosis, but gave it a black box warning for cardiovascular disease.  This week I'll cover the data that led to it's approval despite such dire warnings.  

Get the papers themselves here and be sure to follow the podcast on twitter @ebrheum or sign up with your favorite podcast aggregator at ebrheum.com

This week I pair the recently published TRACE-RA trial assessing the efficacy of atorvastatin in primary prevention of cardiovascular disease. It offered a great opportunity to also go after the recent Nature publication "Scientists rise up against statistical significance," which has (inexplicably) gotten so much high praise.  

Subscribe to the podcast / my twitter feed and find the papers at ebrheum.com!

This week I discuss the phase 2 trial on baricitinib in SLE.  Though it's early times (and the total flop of rituxan in ME/CFS recently can attest to this), this was a large phase 2 and I'm hopeful it carries through to the ongoing phase 3 trials.  Follow me on twitter and find all the papers / links at my new landing page, ebrheum.com!

#RheumJC week!  I hope you all tuned into the online journal club #RheumJC, but if you did not I put up a podcast about the paper we discussed. Yet another epidemiological misadventure into unmeasured confounding and in this case confounding by indication.  Take home... maybe consider not using Tramadol, as you already should have not been doing? 

Article I reference in the podcast: https://emcrit.org/toxhound/tramadont/

All the papers! https://tinyurl.com/yyll5qof

Follow me @EBRheum.