http://medicalxpress.com/ en-us Medical Xpress internet news portal provides the latest news on Health and Medicine. A commonly used class of biologic response modifying drugs can cause acute liver injury with elevated liver enzymes, according to a new study in Clinical Gastroenterology and Hepatology, the official clinical practice journal of the American Gastroenterological Association. Patients with inflammatory diseases such as Chron's disease or ulcerative colitis often are prescribed tumor necrosis factor-alpha (TNF-α) antagonists, which modify the body's response to infection. Patients with inflammatory arthropathies and selected dermatological diseases are also candidates to receive such compounds. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2013-04-frequently-biologic-agents-acute-liver.html Diseases, Conditions, Syndromes Mon, 29 Apr 2013 18:52:34 EST news286480349 (HealthDay)—A patient with Crohn's disease is concerned about the attempt by the makers of adalimumab to prevent disclosure of trial data submitted during the drug's approval process, according to a personal view piece published online April 16 in BMJ. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2013-04-patient-lack-biological-drugs.html Medications Thu, 18 Apr 2013 16:00:03 EST news285517875 (HealthDay)—Doctors who treat patients with psoriasis show wide variation in their beliefs about the safety and effectiveness of psoriasis treatments, according to a study published in the February issue of the Journal of the American Academy of Dermatology. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2013-02-doctors-perceptions-psoriasis-therapies-vary.html Diseases, Conditions, Syndromes Thu, 07 Feb 2013 13:20:01 EST news279464855 (HealthDay)—For patients with moderate-to-severe hidradenitis suppurativa (HS), a chronic skin disease characterized by painful abscesses, nodules, and draining fistulas in the axilla and groin, treatment with once-weekly adalimumab is associated with improvements in pain and inflammation, according to a study published online Dec. 17 in the Annals of Internal Medicine. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-12-adalimumab-relieves-hidradenitis-suppurativa.html Inflammatory disorders Tue, 18 Dec 2012 18:07:14 EST news275076428 (HealthDay)—For patients with rheumatoid arthritis (RA), long-term clinical outcomes are good with etanercept and adalimumab; but for adalimumab, treatment response is strongly dependent on the presence or absence of anti-adalimumab antibodies, according to research published in the December issue of Arthritis & Rheumatism. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-12-immunogenicity-strongly-impacts-response-adalimumab.html Arthritis & Rheumatism Thu, 13 Dec 2012 15:11:21 EST news274633874 (HealthDay)—Humira (adalimumab) has been approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration to treat moderate-to-severe ulcerative colitis in adults, the agency said Friday. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-10-humira-widened-ulcerative-colitis.html Medications Mon, 01 Oct 2012 18:54:15 EST news268336447 Early, intensive therapy with a biotechnologically produced medication can provide significantly faster pain relief for patients with rheumatic joint inflammation. Damage to joints can also be reduced when the medication is applied right at the beginning of the illness. A nationwide study sponsored by the Federal Ministry of Education and Research and conducted by Prof. Gerd-Rüdiger Burmester, director of the Medical Department, Division of Rheumatology and Clinical Immunology at Charité – Universitätsmedizin Berlin, came to this conclusion. Findings are published in the Annals of the Rheumatic Diseases. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-09-antibodies-immune-deficiency.html Arthritis & Rheumatism Thu, 27 Sep 2012 09:44:37 EST news267957868 (Medical Xpress) -- A new study involving researchers from Karolinska Institutet demonstrates the efficacy of Tofacitinib, a new drug for rheumatoid arthritis. According to the study, which is published in The New England Journal of Medicine, the drug is just as effective as biological medicines, but unlike them can be taken in tablet form. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-08-efficacy-rheumatoid-arthritis-drug.html Arthritis & Rheumatism Thu, 09 Aug 2012 04:13:33 EST news263704405 New research confirms no significant difference in the rates of death among patients with rheumatoid arthritis (RA) who were exposed to one of several TNF inhibitors used to treat RA, adalimumab (Humira), etanercept (Enbrel), and infliximab (Remicade). This population-based study of RA patients in Sweden—the first to compare mortality rates among patients treated with individual TNF inhibitors—is now available in Arthritis & Rheumatism, a journal published by Wiley on behalf of the American College of Rheumatology (ACR). http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-08-difference-death-patients-exposed-common.html Arthritis & Rheumatism Wed, 08 Aug 2012 00:00:01 EST news263569158 Adalimumab (an anti-tumor necrosis factor [TNF] antibody) is effective in maintaining remission in certain pediatric patients with Crohn's disease, according to a new study in Gastroenterology, the official journal of the American Gastroenterological Association. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-08-adalimumab-therapy-children-crohn-disease.html Diseases, Conditions, Syndromes Mon, 06 Aug 2012 12:40:14 EST news263475592 (HealthDay) -- All patients with psoriasis should be screened for hepatitis B surface antigen and hepatitis B core antibody prior to the initiation of tumor necrosis factor-alpha inhibitor therapy, according to research published online June 25 in the Journal of the American Academy of Dermatology. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-07-hep-screening-urged-tnf-alpha-inhibitor.html Diseases, Conditions, Syndromes Sun, 01 Jul 2012 13:51:13 EST news260369467 Data from one of the few head-to-head trials in rheumatoid arthritis (RA) presented today at EULAR 2012, the Annual Congress of the European League Against Rheumatism, demonstrates that at one year, 64.8% of patients receiving abatacept (Orencia) and 63.4% of patients receiving adalimumab (Humira) achieved ACR20. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-06-head-to-head-ra-abatacept-efficacy-adalimumab.html Arthritis & Rheumatism Thu, 07 Jun 2012 07:40:34 EST news258273626 Patients with inflammatory rheumatic diseases (IRD) treated with anti-tumour necrosis factor medications (anti-TNFs) have a 75% greater risk of developing herpes zoster, or shingles, than patients treated with traditional disease modifying anti-rheumatic drugs (DMARDs), according to a meta-analysis presented today at EULAR 2012, the Annual Congress of the European League Against Rheumatism. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-06-treatment-anti-tnfs-shingles-percent.html Arthritis & Rheumatism Thu, 07 Jun 2012 07:39:52 EST news258273584 Data presented today at EULAR 2012, the Annual Congress of the European League Against Rheumatism, demonstrates that tocilizumab monotherapy is more effective than adalimumab monotherapy in the treatment of rheumatoid arthritis (RA) based on change from baseline in DAS28 (-3.3 vs. -1.8, p http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-06-tocilizumab-effective-adalimumab-symptoms-rheumatoid.html Arthritis & Rheumatism Wed, 06 Jun 2012 10:43:12 EST news258198156 (HealthDay) -- The effectiveness of therapies for psoriasis is variable, and may be lower in real-world settings than in trial settings, according to a study published in the April issue of the Archives of Dermatology. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-04-effectiveness-psoriasis-treatments.html Diseases, Conditions, Syndromes Fri, 20 Apr 2012 15:30:01 EST news254150335 A clinical study co-led by the Montreal Heart Institute and Innovaderm Research Inc., which was presented today at the annual meeting of the American Academy of Dermatology, shows that a new treatment for psoriasis could be associated with a significant decrease in vascular inflammation, a major risk factor of cardiovascular disease. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-03-psoriasis-heart.html Diseases, Conditions, Syndromes Fri, 16 Mar 2012 14:16:02 EST news251125016 (HealthDay) -- Ultraviolet B (UVB) is preferred by dermatologists for first-line treatment of moderate to severe psoriasis in both healthy male and female patients, according to a study published in the March issue of the Journal of the American Academy of Dermatology. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-02-uvb-treatment-moderate-severe-psoriasis.html Diseases, Conditions, Syndromes Fri, 24 Feb 2012 14:40:01 EST news249309321 Biological agents used to treat rheumatoid arthritis seem to be associated with an increased risk of skin cancer, indicates a systematic review of published research in the Annals of the Rheumatic Diseases. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2011-09-biological-agents-rheumatoid-arthritis-skin.html Cancer Thu, 08 Sep 2011 05:17:02 EST news234677807 Data presented today at the EULAR 2011 Annual Congress demonstrated that initial treatment with adalimumab (Humira, ADA) plus methotrexate in early RA patients can provide high levels of disease control in many patients, and may also offer the opportunity to change future treatment options for some. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2011-05-adalimumab-treatment-optimize-long-term-outcomes.html Diseases, Conditions, Syndromes Wed, 25 May 2011 10:17:40 EST news225537124 Adalimumab (ADA), a drug often prescribed for women with Crohn's disease, actively crosses the placenta during the final trimester of pregnancy and remains in a newborn's bloodstream for at least three months, researchers at the University of California San Francisco have found. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2011-05-adalimumab-cord-blood-infants-exposed.html Medications Sun, 08 May 2011 06:26:03 EST news224054725