The process of weaning our patients off biologic disease-modifying antirheumatic drug (b-DMARD) therapy is not unfamiliar in our clinics. However, when attending to our patients, many complications and questions arise. Specific guidance is needed, but where do we turn? Thankfully, our latest guest, Dr. Paul Emery, may have some answers. His latest study, Predicting Flare in Patients With Rheumatoid Arthritis in Biologic Induced Remission, on Tapering, and on Stable Therapy attempted to “identify predictors of flare in patients in stable b-DMARD–induced clinical remission”. Let’s dive in together and see what he and his team have found!

To better understand the mechanisms that drive antiphospholipid syndrome (APS), Dr. Yu Zuo and his team, evaluated the presence of circulating calprotectin (cCLP) to detect any clinical associations or even the mechanistic role among a cohort of primary APS and aPL-positive patients. Dr. Zuo sits down with us this week to discuss whether calprotectin can be a functional biomarker for those with APS thrombocytopenia and what the future holds for this study’s conclusions.

Benjamin Franklin once said: “An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure”. This week, we have the opportunity to see this realized in a recent clinical study entitled, Vitamin D and Marine n-3 Fatty Acids for Autoimmune Disease Prevention: Outcomes Two Years After Completion of a Double-Blind, Placebo-Controlled Trial. Our guest is the study’s first author, Dr. Karen Costenbader. She explains the results of this research, which suggests Vitamin D and marine n-3 fatty acids play a significant role in preventing autoimmune disease!