A larger proportion of patients with gout had a therapeutic response at six months when treated with methotrexate and pegloticase than with pegloticase alone, according to results from the multi-center, open-label MIRROR (methotrexate to increase response rates in patients with uncontrolled gout receiving KRYSTEXXA) study, recently published in the Journal of Rheumatology.1 The MIRROR study…
In January A&R, Simon et al. report a study to assess humoral and cellular immune responses after infection with, or vaccination against, SARS-CoV-2 in patients with B cell depletion and controls who are B cell competent, finding that B cell depletion completely blocks humoral but not T cell SARS-CoV-2 vaccination response. In the same issue, Connolly et al. evaluated disease flare and post-vaccination reactions in patients with rheumatic and musculoskeletal diseases following messenger RNA (mRNA) vaccination.
Consulting rheumatologists often assess patients with atypical clinical presentations for the possibility of an underlying rheumatic disease. Inflammatory syndromes that are not clearly rheumatic in nature can be particularly challenging to diagnose. Here, we share the case of a young woman with a long-standing undiagnosed illness and highly elevated inflammatory markers, and describe the evaluation…
For decades, rheumatologist Cindy Flower, MD, accumulated images of systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE) in her patients, as well as clinical vignettes to use in teaching at Queen Elizabeth Hospital in Bridgetown, Barbados. For decades, she has wanted to do something wide-reaching with these materials, sharing information from her practice and her mentor, the late Prof….
Granulomatosis with polyangiitis (GPA), is a type of anti-neutrophil cytoplasmic antibody (ANCA) associated vasculitis (AAV) that affects small- to medium-sized vessels.1 It can occur equally in both men and women, with a reported mean age at onset of 55 years.2 The classical presentation of GPA includes upper respiratory tract (i.e., chronic sinusitis, serous otitis and…
Immune checkpoint inhibitors (ICIs), such as anti-programmed cell-death 1/programmed death-ligand 1 (anti-PD-1/PD-L1) or anti-CTL-associated protein (anti-CTLA-4), have dramatically changed the treatment of advanced cancers over the past decade. ICIs block T cell inhibition, thus increasing the anti-tumor immune response. ICIs are used not only for metastatic cancer, but also as adjuvant treatment for some stage…
A soon-to-be published guideline from the ACR and the Vasculitis Foundation on Kawasaki disease underscores the importance of early diagnosis and intensified treatment for people with this serious condition.1 Intravenous immunoglobulin (IVIG) remains the treatment mainstay, and prompt, aggressive treatment may be able to reduce the risk of serious complications in some patients. The guideline…
(Reuters Health)—It takes 12.4 months of bisphosphonate therapy to prevent one nonvertebral fracture per 100 postmenopausal women with osteoporosis, a meta-analysis of randomized clinical trials suggests.1 Researchers examined data on 10 randomized clinical trials with a total of 23,384 women who had an osteoporosis diagnosis based on either existing vertebral fractures or a bone mineral…
At the ACR Convergence session CARE: Spondyloarthritis, Alexis Ogdie, MD, presented key principles of diagnosis & management of patients with spondyloarthritis.
Experts shined a spotlight on select abstracts of the latest rheumatology research, addressing such topics as racial disparities in the management of children with SLE, vitamin D or fish oil supplementation to prevent autoimmune disease & more.