Synthetic DMARDs May Blunt Pneumococcal Vaccine Response in Systemic Sclerosis

However, Dr. John Varga, of the Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine, Chicago, tells Reuters Health in a phone interview, “I would be extremely cautious” about extrapolating these findings to other rheumatic diseases, noting SSc has features, such as fibrosis, that set it aside from other rheumatic diseases.

The study was well done, with clean results, Dr. Varga adds, but it was based on a small cohort (from southern Sweden) that’s unlikely to have had much ethnic diversity.

Reference

Hesselstrand R, Nagel J, Saxne T, et al. Immunogenicity and safety of pneumococcal vaccination in patients with systemic sclerosis. Rheumatology (Oxford). 2018 Jan 8. doi: 10.1093/rheumatology/kex471. [Epub ahead of print]

Seeing vessels clearly can help with discovery and timely treatment

No one-size-fits-all approach exists for the care and treatment of patients with systemic sclerosis (SSc) and SSc with pulmonary involvement. Here, experts discuss some best clinical practices for these patients.

Although more than 189,300,000 eligible Americans are fully vaccinated against SARS-CoV-2 as of Oct. 18, 2021, vaccine hesitancy persists.1 The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), citing data from the U.S. Census Bureau’s Household Pulse Survey collected between May 26 and June 7, 2021, reports that in some U.S. counties—particularly in the Southeast…

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