As we turn the corner on the second decade of biologic use for rheumatic disorders, a reappraisal of approach in our communication with patients is due. In practice, the impact these agents have on patients’ lives justifies the friction rheumatologists face when connecting patients to them. You can understand why older rheumatologists who apprenticed on…
Since it was first reported in 1916, a correlation between inflammatory myopathies and cancer has been noted in several studies. Population studies have confirmed this relationship, and the phrase cancer-associated myopathy has entered the vernacular. Over the past decade, research efforts have shifted toward revealing associations between autoantibodies and clinical phenotypes. One subset of auto-antigens…
At diagnosis, temporal artery biopsy results and large-vessel involvement of patients with giant cell arteritis may be stronger predictors of mortality than cardiovascular risk factors…
New data suggest myeloid cells in SLE patients skew B and T cell activation status toward the M1 proinflammatory phenotype, thereby directing SLE flares and remission…
New evidence from a clinical trial of rituximab has identified the pathogenetic role of B cells in the earliest, pre-arthritis stage of autoantibody-positive RA…
NEW YORK (Reuters Health)—Rheumatoid arthritis (RA) outcomes are better with some non-TNF inhibitors than with others, according to French registry data. “Previously, indirect comparisons (meta-analyses) did not show any difference between biologics in terms of effectiveness,” Dr. Jacques-Eric Gottenberg from Strasbourg University Hospital, France, tells Reuters Health by email. “Our direct comparison using observational data…
New research explores the association of the ability to walk and the risk of cardiovascular disease in OA patients compared with the general population. During the study, researchers recorded a six-minute walking distance and measured arterial stiffness of participants. The results: Even among younger people, OA patients could not walk as far as those in the general population. Also, arterial stiffness was inversely associated with walking distance, suggesting walking is important to the cardiovascular risk profile of OA patients…
Research has found age at disease onset has an impact on prognosis for patients with primary Sjögren’s syndrome. In the study, early onset primary Sjögren’s syndrome was associated with severe, systemic disease and development of lymphoproliferative disease…
What does a new patient experience as symptoms develop and diagnosis is confirmed? The ARP Practice Committee is developing persona-based case studies to help answer this and other questions. The latest topic is juvenile idiopathic arthritis…
Obesity is a well-known risk factor for knee osteoarthritis (OA), but data regarding the association of body composition (fat and muscle mass) with the risk of knee OA are lacking. Thus, it is not clear whether the effects of BMI, typically interpreted as effects of obesity, are truly due to excess adiposity rather than to overall loading due to the combined weight of body mass. Misra et al. undertook this study to examine the longitudinal association of body composition categories based on fat and muscle mass with the risk of incident knee OA…