Author Archives: Margarida Maia PhD

Add-on Xeljanz controls disease as treatment for non-responding AS

Adding Xeljanz (tofacitinib) to treatment with biologic disease-modifying anti-rheumatic drugs (DMARDs) when these medications aren’t working well may help adults with ankylosing spondylitis (AS) keep their disease activity under control, a study suggests. Because the study included only a few patients, “further prospective randomized controlled trials with large…

Depression, other comorbidities linked to harsher AS symptoms

Two or more comorbidities affected nearly half of the ankylosing spondylitis (AS) patients in a large study of the disease, with the most common coexisting conditions being uveitis (eye inflammation), depression, and hypertension (high blood pressure). Those with no comorbidities were younger and had shorter disease duration, the researchers reported,…

TNF, IL-17 inhibitors work equally regardless of MRI, CRP tests: Study

People with axial spondyloarthritis (axSpA) respond equally well to two types of medications that ease inflammation — tumor necrosis factor (TNF) inhibitors or interleukin-17 (IL-17) inhibitors — regardless of their imaging findings or C-reactive protein (CRP) levels before treatment, a meta-analysis has found. This suggests that neither magnetic resonance imaging…