Every day, rheumatology patients live with the realities of having a chronic disease that requires a lifetime of treatment. This knowledge can be an emotional burden, and some people deal with it better than others. Emerging research is showing that those patients who exhibit emotional control are better able to cope and ultimately experience a…
Dr. Simon Helfgott’s essay, “Barking at the Moon,” in the July 2015 issue of The Rheumatologist, about the unintended consequences of EHRs (electronic health records) prompted me to share my experience regarding the newly recognized KeMo disease. Keyboarding and mouse-clicking (KeMo) activity now consumes about 50% of the medical clinician’s day, as the modern EHRs…
Level 3 Visit with Primary Diagnosis of Osteoarthritis A 36-year-old patient presents with unilateral primary osteoarthritis of the left hip. She reports her groin pain as 7 on a scale of 1–10. When she tries to straighten her left leg, she experiences increased groin pain. She is currently taking over-the-counter medication to relieve the pain,…
CPT codes: 99213 Diagnosis Codes: ICD-9: 715.15, 278.01 ICD-10: M16.12, E66.01, Z68.41 This encounter is coded as 99213 as follows: History—The history of present illness was extended. The review of systems was comprehensive, and no past family social history was documented. This makes the history level expanded problem focused. Examination—There were eight systems examined. This…
Ankle arthritis is a debilitating condition that leaves many patients in severe pain and greatly limits their activities. Until recently, the standard treatment for bone-on-bone ankle pain has been ankle fusion, or arthrodesis, in which surgeons literally fuse the bones of the ankle joint together. However, in the past few years, total ankle replacement surgery,…
Two new ACR publications, created in collaboration with the European League Against Rheumatism, aim to improve the treatment of patients with polymyalgia rheumatica (PMR) and introduce new classification criteria for gout…
NEW YORK (Reuters Health)—A Dutch study confirms that reduced serum levels of insulin-like growth factor-1 (IGF-1) are associated with increased fracture risk in elderly women, but not men. In an Aug. 31 online paper in the Journal of Clinical Endocrinology & Metabolism, Dr. N.C. van Varsseveld, of VU University Medical Center, Amsterdam, and colleagues noted that…
NEW YORK (Reuters Health)—Adding to earlier evidence, a new study finds kids with septic arthritis who are treated with dexamethasone recover faster. “We expected these results based on our previous randomized double-blind controlled study,” Dr. Itay Fogel from Schneider Children’s Medical Center of Israel and Tel Aviv University told Reuters Health by email. “However, the…
To increase access to community-based physical activity for arthritis patients, the Osteoarthritis Action Alliance has awarded funding to three programs designed to implement evidence-based physical activity programs and osteoarthritis education in their communities…
An Australian study found an association between child physical performance measures and adult knee structures. The data, collected from three points in participants’ lives, revealed a link between childhood activity and adult tibial cartilage volume and bone area.