RMD Open: Rheumatic and Musculoskeletal Diseases

Professor Xavier Mariette (Head of Rheumatology at Université Paris-Sud, France) is an expert in Sjögren's syndrome. He tells Editor-in-Chief of RMD Open Bernard Combe what is known so far about a relatively unstudied autoimmune disease characterised by dryness of the mouth and eyes which is closely linked to rheumatoid arthritis and lupus.Read more about this subject on the RMD Open website:• “Epidemiology of neurological manifestations in Sjögren's syndrome: data from the French ASSESS Cohort” -http://rmdopen.bmj.com/content/2/1/e000179;• “SIGLEC1 is a biomarker of disease activity and indicates extraglandular manifestation in primary Sjögren's syndrome” - http://rmdopen.bmj.com/content/2/2/e000292; • “Patient burden of Sjögren’s: a comprehensive literature review revealing the range and heterogeneity of measures used in assessments of severity” - http://rmdopen.bmj.com/content/3/2/e000443.

Editor-in-Chief of RMD Open Bernard Combe is joined by Theodore Pincus, Rheumatologist at the Rush University, Chicago, to discuss how new screening tools such as the MDHAQ (Multidimensional Health Assessment Questionnaire) are improving diagnosis in rheumatology.To read more about these topics, visit the RMD Open website:MDHAQ/RAPID3 scores in patients with osteoarthritis are similar to or higher than in patients with rheumatoid arthritis: a cross-sectional study from current routine rheumatology care at four sites - http://rmdopen.bmj.com/content/3/1/e000391 Responsiveness of a simple RAPID-3-like index compared to disease-specific BASDAI and ASDAS indices in patients with axial spondyloarthritis - http://rmdopen.bmj.com/content/2/2/e000235 Improving inflammatory arthritis management through tighter monitoring of patients and the use of innovative electronic tools - http://rmdopen.bmj.com/content/2/2/e000302 Systematic review of patient-reported outcome measures (PROMs) for assessing disease activity in rheumatoid arthritis - http://rmdopen.bmj.com/content/2/2/e000202.

Cassandra Calabrese (Cleveland Clinic Foundation, Ohio, USA) speaks with Editor-in-Chief of RMD Open Bernard Combe about checkpoint inhibitors.For more information, please visit the RMD Open website, where the related article to this podcast can also be found: Rheumatic immune-related adverse events of checkpoint therapy for cancer: case series of a new nosological entity: http://rmdopen.bmj.com/content/3/1/e000412.

Professor Jonathan Kay (Division of Rheumatology, Department of Medicine, University of Massachusetts Medical School and UMass Memorial Medical Center, Worcester, Massachusetts, USA) tells Editor-in-Chief of RMD Open Bernard Combe why he supports the switch from branded drugs to their cheaper biosimilar.They spoke at the EULAR conference 2017, held in Madrid, in June.For more information on this topic read:• Key design considerations on comparative clinical efficacy studies for biosimilars: adalimumab as an example - http://rmdopen.bmj.com/content/2/1/e000154 • Biosimilars: what do patients need to consider? - http://rmdopen.bmj.com/content/1/1/e000141 • Biosimilars in rheumatology: what the clinician should know - http://rmdopen.bmj.com/content/1/1/e000010 • Switching from originator biological agents to biosimilars: what is the evidence and what are the issues? - http://rmdopen.bmj.com/content/3/2/e000492.

Dr Joao Fonseca, head of the Rheumatology Department at the Lisbon Academic Medical Centre (Faculdade de Medicina da Universidade de Lisboa), tells Editor in Chief of RMD Open Bernard Combe how the data from the reuma.pt database is improving the early diagnosis and treatment of arthritis in Portugal.The Rheumatic Diseases Portuguese Register (Reuma.pt) was started by the Portuguese Society of Rheumatology in 2008 with the aim to register patients suffering from all the different inflammatory joint diseases.http://rmdopen.bmj.com/