One of your first clinical assignments as a medical student was likely to have been the lung exam. Its key descriptors may still resonate in your mind: inspection, palpation, percussion and auscultation. Proudly parading down the hospital corridors, your newly purchased stethoscope snugly tucked inside your lab coat pocket, you carefully place its cold metal…
The problem that dogs the work of all of those treating patients with antiphospholipid syndrome (APS) is the apparent lack of knowledge of the syndrome, both by the general public, as well as by swaths of the medical fraternity. Perhaps it was ever thus—a syndrome less than 40 years old could be described as new,…
The Case A 41-year-old woman was referred to the dermatology clinic for a three-month history of tender lesions on her elbows and around the joints of her hands. Her medical history was notable for seropositive, non-erosive rheumatoid arthritis (RA), which was being treated with 5 mg prednisone daily, 10 mg methotrexate weekly by mouth, 200…
SAN FRANCISCO—By harnessing the power of next generation sequencing strategies and combining them with clever statistical strategies and tools, investigators are striving to define causal pathways of and mechanisms underlying complex diseases, such as rheumatoid arthritis, according to Soumya Raychaudhuri, MD, PhD, associate professor, Harvard Medical School, Brigham and Women’s Hospital, Boston, during a session…
Recently, an FDA committee announced support for the approval of CT-P13, an infliximab biosimilar. The FDA has also fast tracked the development of a fibromyalgia treatment designed for multiple symptoms…
It is valuable to understand the semantics of consultant comments. A journal article I once read indicated that when a consultant reports having seen a series of individuals with a given problem, it means they have seen two cases. When they report they have experience with a problem, they mean they have seen a (one)…
Approximately 10 years ago, the Office of Inspector General (OIG) issued its first guidance on compliance as it relates to federal mandates for physician practices. Although taking the necessary steps can be a daunting task in an era of complex rules and heightened regulations, there are key areas of government-mandated compliance requirements that practices should…
On Nov. 2, 2015, Congress passed the Bipartisan Budget Act of 2015. The Act contained a nasty surprise change to Social Security claiming strategies. Two commonly recommended strategies are known as file and suspend and restricted application. Both of these strategies will be going away, but not immediately. A lucky few will be grandfathered in….
A 47-year-old Caucasian woman presented to the rheumatology clinic with a one-year history of pain and swelling involving the wrists, hands, ankles and feet that progressively worsened. Her symptoms included generalized fatigue, morning stiffness in the hands and lower back lasting more than an hour, Raynaud’s phenomena (triphasic), photosensitivity, tightening of the skin of the…
When rheumatoid arthritis (RA) left Stefanie Gluckman fighting chronic pain and relegated to a wheelchair, she turned to Lori Rubenstein Fazzio, DPT, PT, MAppSc, YTRX, of Mosaic Physical Therapy in Los Angeles, for relief. Dr. Rubenstein Fazzio knows what it’s like to suffer from excruciating pain. After sustaining career-threatening injuries in a horseback accident in…