A recent pilot study explores the feasibility of virtual reality-based pain interventions for people with rheumatic conÂditions.1 Although the work is in its early stages, it may someday represent a new non-pharmacological tool for patients with chronic pain. VR for Treatment R. Swamy Venuturupalli, MD, FACR, is an associate clinical professor of medicine at the…
Reactive arthritis is classically associated with an infectious etiology, such as Salmonella, Yersinia, Campylobacter, Chlamydia or gonorrhea. Clostridium difficile is a rare, and recently recognized, causative agent for this condition.1 Case Presentation The patient is a 21-year-old man with a past medical history significant for hereditary spherocytosis and Crohn’s disease, complicated by an anorectal fistula,…
A proposed biomarker may improve the diagnosis of rheumaÂtoid arthritis (RA). Writing in Arthritis & Rheumatology, researchers at Pleasanton, Calif.-based Roche Sequencing Solutions and the University of Toronto say their biomarker, constructed by profiling a comprehensive set of antibodies via high-density peptide array, has high specificity and sensitivity for RA, compared with commercially available assays.1…
Rheumatology has arguably benefited like no other field from the proliferation of an increasingly effective pipeline of therapeutics. These medications have dramatically raised the bar for clinical outcomes for our patients in a way that we could not have envisioned a short generation ago. With such therapeutic progress now reaching a widening circle of rheumatic…
It is an exciting time in the world of vasculitis research. More clinical studies and trials are being conducted now than at any time in history. In the past ten years, four drugs have been approved by the U.S. Food & Drug Administration (FDA) and other regulatory agencies specifically for the treatment of vasculitis: Rituximab…
A young man sits down at my COVID-19 immunization station at Maine Medical Center and stares resolutely ahead, focusing on the far wall. He looks nervous. I make sure the needle and syringe are outside his field of vision. That should help. I pick up a Band-Aid from my box of supplies. It’s a Band-Aid…
Recent evidence on how anti-citrullinated protein antibodies, anti-modified protein autoantibodies and rheumatoid factor activity overlap in RA demonstrate new ideas for diagnostics and pathophysiology.
ACR CONVERGENCE 2020—Attention to bone health in people at risk of developing, or who already have, osteoporosis is essential to reduce their increased risk for fragility fractures. Major risk factors for osteoporosis include being female, white, of small frame and having a family history of osteoporosis, as well as having secondary causes of osteoporosis, such…
ACR Convergence panelists discussed how to monitor SSc-ILD patients for ILD severity & the brightening prospects for therapy.
The ACR Review Course featured eight talks providing a practical review of issues encountered by rheumatologists.