CHICAGO—Can non-drug interventions improve the lives of patients with scleroderma? Janet L. Poole, PhD, OTR/L, professor and director of the Occupational Therapy Graduate Program of the School of Medicine, University of New Mexico, Albuquerque, addressed this question when she presented the ARHP Distinguished Lecture at the 2018 ACR/ARHP Annual Meeting. She discussed the challenges faced…
CHICAGO—Josef S. Smolen, MD, professor of internal medicine and chair of the Department of Rheumatology, Vienna General Hospital, Austria, presented the prestigious Paul Klemperer, MD, Memorial Lecture at the 2018 ACR/ARHP Annual Meeting. Dr. Smolen, whose work is frequently cited, created the treat-to-target strategy for rheumatoid arthritis (RA). Dr. Smolen began by noting a simple…
CHICAGO—Ken Smith, MD, PhD, professor of medicine at the University of Cambridge, England, gave an update on anti-neutrophil cytoplasmic antibody (ANCA)-associated vasculitis (AAV) at the 2018 ACR/ARHP Annual Meeting. Although vasculitis tends to be defined first by vessel size, the clinical differentiation between the forms is not reliable, explained Dr. Smith. For example, granulomatosis with…
CHICAGO—At the 2018 ACR/ARHP Annual Meeting, Allen C. Steere, MD, delivered the Rheumatology Research Foundation Memorial Lecture honoring the late Charles M. Plotz, MD: Linking Gut Microbial Immunity with Autoimmunity in Joints in Patients with Rheumatoid Arthritis. Dr. Steere is professor of medicine at Harvard Medical School, Boston, and director of translational research in rheumatology…
CHICAGO—Because the epigenome has been implicated in a variety of rheumatic conditions, a Basic Research Conference was convened on Epigenetics in Immune-Mediated Disease in conjunction with the 2018 ACR/ARHP Annual Meeting. Melanie Ehrlich, PhD, professor of human genetics and genomics at Tulane University School of Medicine, New Orleans, opened the conference. She has a long…
CHICAGO—Held during the 2018 ACR/ARHP Annual Meeting, the ACR Review Course covered a wide range of topics for rheumatologists—from advances in pain and rheumatic disease management to the intersection of rheumatology and neurology. Session speakers shared insights, as well as state-of-the-art approaches to diagnosis, management and treatment. Inflammatory Myopathies Julie J. Paik, MD, MHS, assistant…
CHICAGO—Physicians from the University of Chicago presented an intriguing case of Sweet’s syndrome for the Clinical Pathological Conference during the 2018 ACR/ARHP Annual Meeting. Pankti Reid, MD, MPH, a rheumatology fellow at the University of Chicago, introduced the case of a white man who, in 2017, came under the care of the University of Chicago….
CHICAGO—The treatment of patients with juvenile idiopathic arthritis (JIA) is historically directed by clinical subtype. During a session at the 2018 ACR/ARHP Annual Meeting, speakers addressed the biological classification and treatment of JIA, discussing draft guidelines and recommendations, the impact of computer modeling on identifying JIA subtypes and subgroups of chronic arthritis. Guidelines & Recommendations…
CHICAGO—Medications have frequently been implicated as a cause of musculoskeletal complaints, including persistent arthralgias, arthritis and myalgias.1 The list of offending agents is diverse, and the degree of symptoms is variable. In the world of transplant recipients, this list is exhaustive and includes immunosuppressive agents (cyclosporine, tacrolimus); myeloid growth factors, such as G-CSF; antibiotics (quinolones);…
CHICAGO—Every minute, it seems, a new digital tool is introduced in medicine. Whether it’s a new digital measuring stick, a new data-crunching system or a new app, the tech tools form an endless convoy of options. But are they worth it? Will they really help you do your job better? Will they help patients feel…