For 30 years, the Rheumatology Research Foundation has been funding research and advancing treatments. During that time, Leonard L. Dragone, MD, PhD, received a Foundation award to help look for new strategies to treat autoimmune and inflammatory diseases in mouse models. Then, he was working as an assistant professor of pediatrics and immunology at the…
Can merely crossing your fingers change the way your brain perceives pain when you touch different stimuli with three fingers? Perhaps so, according to a new study by UK-based researchers, when taken into context with the immediate environment. Changes in posture could potentially provide a way to influence chronic pain if basic science results lead…
A report from the Institute of Medicine that gives new diagnostic criteria for myalgic encephalomyelitis/chronic fatigue syndrome (ME/CFS) and recommends a new name for the disorder received mixed reviews from rheumatologists and other physicians.1 “Diagnosing ME/CFS often is a challenge … the new diagnostic criteria will make it easier for clinicians to recognize and accurately…
Lyme disease is often considered a cause of chronic fatigue, pain and other incapacitating symptoms. This assumption stems from analyses of patients who seek retreatment for Lyme disease. However, a new study suggests that Lyme disease is not life altering in the long term for most patients. Specifically, patients with culture-confirmed Lyme disease have similar…
Ankylosing spondylitis primarily affects the joints and ligaments of the spine, but may also have an impact on other joints. Patients experience pain and stiffness that limit mobility in the back and other affected joints. Symptoms can come and go, last for long periods of time and be severe. Anti-tumor necrosis factor (anti-TNF) drugs are…
The costs of some disease-modifying therapies outpace prescription drug inflation, saddling insured patients with thousands of dollars in out-of-pocket payments and delayed or denied coverage, two new studies have shown. Disease-modifying therapies for multiple sclerosis are rising in cost five to seven times faster than inflation and cost more in the United States than in…
Bone microarchitecture is impaired in premenopausal women with active celiac disease, a new study from Argentina shows. “This report helps us to understand how bone is affected in celiac disease: increasing bone resorption and thinning trabeculae, even losing some number of them,” Dr. María Belén Zanchetta from Instituto de Diagnóstico e Investigaciones Metabólicas in Buenos…
Fibromyalgia syndrome (FMS), rheumatoid arthritis (RA) and spondyloarthritis (SpA) all exhibit multifaceted manifestations, and many patients exhibit overlapping comorbidities. However, patients with FMS are distinct from others in that they experience widespread pain, fatigue and mood changes, including anxiety and depression. Although its hallmark symptom of pain causes rheumatologists to consider FMS a pain disorder,…
At the 2014 ACR/ARHP Annual Meeting in Boston, the Rheumatology Research Foundation staff sat down with a few ACR and ARHP members to get their take on what the Foundation’s 30th anniversary means to them. We spoke with current and former leaders of the Foundation and the ACR, as well as numerous Foundation award recipients,…
Study proposes increased active C5a recruits neutrophils to arthritic joints to maintain inflammation