Recent studies point to a relationship between scleroderma and autoantibodies (e.g., anti-RNA polymerase III or anti-RNPC3), and an increased cancer risk within a short interval of scleroderma onset. Mechanistic studies provide further evidence that cancer may trigger scleroderma in patients with these autoantibodies. However, many questions remain unanswered. A study in the Annals of the…
Higher anxiety levels in postmenopausal women may put them at increased risk of fracture and should be considered when assessing a woman’s risk of osteoporosis as well. This is the conclusion of a study recently published in the journal Menopause that looked at the role of anxiety in bone health.1 Specifically, the study examined the…
BALTIMORE—Understanding issues regarding pregnancy in women with rheumatic disease is important to patients and physicians alike, said Bonnie Bermas, MD, the Dr. Morris Ziff Distinguished Professor in Rheumatology at UT Southwestern Medical Center, Dallas, in her recent lecture at the Maryland Society for the Rheumatic Diseases.The physiologic changes in normal pregnancy, which include increased circulating…
People with autoimmune connective tissue diseases produce antibodies against nuclear antigens up to 10 years before they develop clinical features. Anti-nuclear antibodies (ANAs) are also very common, and a small percentage of ANA-positive patients progress to clinical autoimmunity. The question: Is there a reliable way to screen at-risk patients before they develop active autoimmunity and…
Traditional X-rays, move over—there may be a new gold standard for joint imaging to assess even the smallest changes that can signal the onset of arthritis, as reported recently in the journal Scientific Reports.1 Utilizing the combined expertise of radiologists, rheumatologists and engineers, University of Cambridge researchers developed an algorithm to monitor the joints of…
Donah Zack Crawford, MA, was a research coordinator at the University of Pennsylvania, focused on premenstrual syndrome and perimenopause, when her symptoms first started. “Someone suggested I see a rheumatologist,” she says, and not long after, Philadelphia-based physician Bruce Hoffman, MD, diagnosed her with rheumatoid arthritis. It was the mid-1990s, and treatment options were limited….
Researchers working to decode the epigenetic landscape for rheumatoid arthritis (RA) were surprised to discover a connection to Huntington’s disease, a finding that could pave the way to discoveries of new therapeutic targets. By developing new methods to integrate data from epigenetic technologies, scientists at the University of California, San Diego (UCSD), set out to…
In summer 2017, I was a few months post-partum when I received an email announcing applications for the ACR’s Advocacy 101 program. It would take only a few days, but I asked my division director if it would be worth the time commitment. He questioned the career benefits of advocacy, but encouraged me to apply…
Knee osteoarthritis (OA) accounts for more than 80% of OA disease burden and has doubled in prevalence in the mid-20th century in the U.S. when compared with people who lived during early industrial era (1800s to early 1900s).1 Currently, the diagnostic and treatment armamentaria are limited. Disease progression is measured by joint space narrowing on…
A recent study suggests costly antibody screening among patients with systemic lupus erythematosus could be reduced by limiting repeat screening of extractable nuclear antigens (ENAs). Researchers investigated how often results changed for anti-ENA and other commonly screened antibodies in repeat testing of patients with SLE. The findings were published in the Journal of Rheumatology.1 “We theorized,…