Mohareb AM, Patel NJ, Fu X, et al. - Rheumatology patients initiating tocilizumab (TCZ) or tofacitinib (TOF) may experience reactivation of hepatitis B virus (HBV). The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), the American Association for the Study of Liver Diseases (AASLD), and the Canadian Rheumatology Association recommend performing HBV screening, however the American College of Rheumatology does not explicitly recommend it.

• Via conducting this cross-sectional study, HBV screening practices for adult rheumatology patients initiating TCZ or TOF before December 31, 2018, in the Greater Boston area, are characterized.

• Researchers assessed 678 patients initiating TCZ and 391 patients initiating TOF.

• Infrequent screening for HBV was recorded in these patients despite recommendations from the AASLD and CDC.

• There appeared an association of race with complete HBV screening (White vs non-White: OR 0.74, 95% CI 0.57–0.95), but not of prior immunosuppression (conventional synthetic disease-modifying antirheumatic drugs [DMARDs]: OR 1.05, 95% CI 0.72–1.55; biologic DMARDs: OR 0.73, 95% CI 0.48–1.12).