“It’s crazy! None of the pictures online look like me!” a young Black woman with systemic lupus earythematosus (SLE) exclaimed. We could only affirm her observation and agree that it was unfair. Like many patients with SLE, our patient was diagnosed at a young age and suffered severe complications that required kidney transplantation before her…
Civil unrest in response to racism is a call for realignment of priorities in all aspects of society, including medical education. Hospital preparedness demands training in the treatment of victims of pepper spray, tear gas and rubber bullets, as well as planning for lockdown procedures in healthcare facilities and medical schools. Beyond logistics though, events…
I have been tongue-tied, of late. When I was a medical student, I was told not to turn the physical examination into an aerobic workout. This sage piece of advice was imparted by my physical examination preceptor, who had watched me perform a complete examination on a hapless volunteer. At the time, I thought of…
RheumMadness is an online collaborative learning experience created to educate trainees, rheumatologists and the wider medical community about recent advances and important concepts in rheumatology. The project is funded by the Rheumatology Research Foundation Clinician Scholar Educator (CSE) Award and modeled after NephMadness, an educational initiative of the American Journal of Kidney Diseases (AJKD) that…
(Reuters)—The U.S. Food & Drug Administration (FDA) is expected to announce a new warning on Johnson & Johnson’s (J&J’s) coronavirus vaccine related to a rare autoimmune disorder, The Washington Post reported on Monday, citing four people familiar with the matter.1 According to The Post, about 100 preliminary reports of Guillain-Barré syndrome have been detected in the…
(Reuters Health)—Among a group of New York patients with rheumatic diseases who received a SARS-CoV-2 vaccine, nearly one in six experienced disease flares after getting their shots, a new study finds.1 A survey of more than 1,100 patients who had received at least one vaccine dose revealed that 14.9% experienced flares. Among the 654 who…
Patients with the rare DNASE1L3 biallelic null mutation present with childhood-onset disease that resembles lupus. This observation prompted research into how abnormalities in the enzyme DNASE1L3 are associated with lupus, with researchers finding autoantibody-mediated impairment of DNASE1L3 activity may be a common non-genetic mechanism leads to anti-dsDNA autoreactivity in SLE.
ATLANTA—The American College of Rheumatology (ACR), in partnership with the Vasculitis Foundation (VF), released three new guidelines for the treatment and management of systemic vasculitis. Vasculitis is a group of about 20 rare diseases that have inflammation of blood vessels in common, which can restrict blood flow and damage vital organs. The three guidelines cover…
This year’s global event offers an interactive, educational and exciting conference, with networking opportunities, insights into clinical and basic research and more.
A delayed second dose of an mRNA vaccine may provide better protection against COVID-19 in elderly patients.