A recent study analyzed inflammasome response, finding the POP1 PYRIN domain protein acts to decrease excessive inflammatory responses and prevent systemic inflammation. Researchers ultimately developed a drug based on POP1 and found it reduced inflammation in mice…
In diagnosing and treating a disease that is rapidly gaining recognition worldwide since it was first recognized in Japan in 2003, 42 experts from 10 different countries recently collaborated to discuss and review the current experience and data on IgG4-related disease. The result is the “International Consensus Guidance Statement on the Management and Treatment of…
NEW YORK (Reuters Health)—A multicomponent intervention can significantly increase pneumococcal vaccination rates in pediatric rheumatology patients, researchers report. “The interventions outlined in our article can easily be implemented in pediatric rheumatology practices or other subspecialty clinics,” Dr. Julia G. Harris from Children’s Mercy Hospital, Kansas City, Mo., told Reuters Health by email. “It takes additional…
NEW YORK (Reuters Health)—Commensal microbes in the gut can activate retina-specific T cells that go on to cause autoimmune uveitis in a mouse model, researchers report. “These findings allow us to understand the biological basis for the disease,” lead author of the study, Dr. Rachel Caspi from National Eye Institute at the NIH in Bethesda,…
(Reuters Health)—Doctors know smoking can increase the risk for certain common inflammatory bowel diseases (IBD), but many patients haven’t gotten the message, a new study suggests. Out of 239 patients with two common types of IBD (Crohn’s disease and ulcerative colitis) only half were aware of the smoking risks associated with these conditions. “The take-home…
Antiphospholipid syndrome (APS) is an autoimmune condition characterized by hypercoagulability often manifested as recurrent thrombosis or pregnancy complications, with persistently circulating antiphospholipid (aPL) antibodies or lupus anticoagulant. Catastrophic APS (CAPS), also known as Asherson syndrome, occurs in less than 1% of cases of APS and involves occlusive microangiopathy in at least three organ systems.1 Case…
The Friday night press release: When a politician or any public figure needs to disclose unfavorable news, chances are they will release it sometime on a late Friday afternoon or evening, hoping that nobody is paying attention. In fact, this behavior was coined “the take out the trash day” on the television political drama, The…
NEW YORK (Reuters Health)—Serum biomarkers can discriminate between Crohn’s disease (CD) and ulcerative colitis (UC), according to Danish and Dutch researchers. “The biomarker assays measure neo-epitopes, which are fragments of extracellular matrix protein degradation,” Joachim Høg Mortensen, a PhD student at Nordic Bioscience in Herlev, Denmark, told Reuters Health by email. “These neo-epitopes are increasingly…
NEW YORK (Reuters Health)—Two classes of inflammatory diseases, uveitis and psoriatic disease, appear linked, as a diagnosis of one increases the risk of developing the other, new research has found. A study of Danish patient registries found nearly triple the rate of uveitis among patients with psoriatic arthritis compared to the general population, and double…
NEW YORK (Reuters Health)—Dermatologic complications hit about one in five patients with inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) on anti-tumor necrosis factor (anti-TNF) therapy, leading to discontinuation of treatment, a French study finds. Dr. Laurent Peyrin-Biroulet, from University Hospital of Nancy, and colleagues note that dermatological complications of anti-TNF therapy are known to occur frequently in IBD…