ACR CONVERGENCE 2020—In patients with connective tissue diseases, such as systemic sclerosis (SSc), pulmonary hypertension (PH) remains one of the leading causes of morbidity and mortality. In her lecture on Friday, Nov. 6, Pulmonary Hypertension: An Update, Mardi Gomberg-Maitland, MD, MSc, professor of medicine and medical director of the Pulmonary Hypertension Program at The George…
ACR CONVERGENCE 2020—In many ways, the current plethora of treatment options for rheumatoid arthritis patients represents an embarrassment of riches. However, while many therapeutics approved by the U.S. Food & Drug Administration (FDA) are available, knowing the order in which to try these medications with patients can be quite challenging. In The Great Debate, held…
ACR CONVERGENCE 2020—Moderated by Bill St.Clair, MD, MACR, an ACR past president and a professor of medicine and immunology at Duke University Medical Center, Durham, N.C., an abstract session on Friday, Nov. 6, focused on the diagnosis, manifestations and outcomes of rheumatoid arthritis (RA), with a focus on interstitial lung disease. RA with ILD Jeffrey…
ACR CONVERGENCE 2020—The ACR’s first fully virtual annual meeting kicked off on Thursday, Nov. 5. During the Opening Session, ACR President Ellen M. Gravallese, MD, talked about how the specialty’s response during the pandemic has provided great hope and will help rheumatology become an even more essential specialty. At the first Plenary Session on Friday,…
Technological advances, including disease registries such as ACR’s RISE registry, are improving physicians’ ability to connect disparate patients with similar clinical symptoms, driving insights into both rare and common diseases.
Research has found blood tests detect elevations of autoantibody isotypes in patients years before they are diagnosed with rheumatoid arthritis (RA). According to Kevin Deane, MD, PhD, identifying patients during this pre-RA period may be key to preventing or delaying the onset of RA.
Acute gout can be very painful, causing patients to seek treatment in the emergency department. A retrospective study of pain interventions for gout in Rhode Island found that nearly 30% of patients received prescriptions for opioid medications over 30 months. Of these prescriptions, over 80% were for patients who had never been exposed to opioids…
The umbrella term crystalline disease covers arthritic conditions caused by deposition of crystals and associated inflammatory response, including erythema, edema and intense pain. The two most common crystal-induced arthropathies are gout, an arthritis secondary to inflammation caused by the presence of monosodium urate (MSU) crystals formed through high levels of serum urate, and calcium pyrophosphate…
Preclinical models have provided important insights into the pathogenesis of OA and potential pathways for therapeutic intervention, including adenosine. Ticagrelor and clopidogrel are both used in patients with coronary artery disease, but only ticagrelor increases extracellular adenosine levels. In this study, treatment with ticagrelor was associated with a 29% lower risk of developing OA than treatment with clopidogrel over five years of follow-up.
In light of the release of the ACR’s new gout guideline, it’s not surprising that 50 abstracts of studies on various aspects of gout were accepted at ACR Convergence 2020. Here, we highlight just a few: