Kurt Ullman | Issue: October 2016 |
MRI inflammation, fat and new bone formation in the sacroiliac joints, spine in patients with AS
Preventing adverse outcomes in individuals who have rheumatic diseases is a daily goal for rheumatologists. For example, rheumatologists prescribe medications and perform screening to prevent erosions in rheumatoid arthritis (RA), renal failure in systemic lupus erythematosus and flares across all diseases. Many of these actions are classified as secondary or tertiary prevention, because individuals have…
The National Psoriasis Foundation estimates that more than 8 million people in the U.S. suffer from psoriasis and that approximately 30% of those individuals develop psoriatic arthritis (PsA).1 Given these statistics, roughly 2.4 million people in the country are likely affected by PsA. Moreover, patients with this systemic condition carry a higher-than-average burden of cardiometabolic…
New research has examined the effect of obesity on inflammatory markers, specifically C-reactive protein (CRP) level and erythrocyte sedimentation rate, in patients with rheumatoid arthritis (RA). Researchers found higher BMIs were associated with higher CRP levels in women both with and without RA, suggesting the phenomenon is related to adiposity and not an indication of disease activity. For men with RA, low BMI was associated with higher CRP levels, which proved to be RA-specific but not a direct causal effect of adiposity…