ROME, Italy—The traditional approach to trials to assess new biomarkers and related treatments has largely been inefficient, and a better strategy is needed to make stratified treatment available for patients more quickly, an expert said at EULAR 2015, the annual congress of the European League Against Rheumatism (EULAR). Mahesh Parmar, PhD, director of the Medical…
ROME, Italy—The medical environment is increasingly adapting to the possibilities of optimizing care by individualizing medical treatment and tailoring treatment to disease phenotypes. Data suggest that individualizing exercise therapy, an important treatment modality for rheumatic and musculoskeletal diseases, can help control disease, maximize function, minimize functional barriers and decrease the risk of co-morbidity.1,2,3 Personalizing exercise…
ROME, Italy—The explosion of imaging technology has made it more important than ever to establish a standardized way in which imaging can and should be used in clinical practice, an expert said in a session at EULAR 2015, the annual congress of the European League Against Rheumatism (EULAR). Marie-Antonietta d’Agostino, MD, PhD, professor of rheumatology…
ROME, Italy—The European League Against Rheumatism (EULAR) annual congress (EULAR 2015) was a much-anticipated event, with more than 14,000 delegates attending from far and wide. The Health Professional Standing Committee was particularly delighted to have planned a program that provided the latest in research terms but also an eclectic mix of valuable topics for health…
The meeting with something for everyone! Below is a sneak peek at some of the 2015 ACR/ARHP Annual Meeting’s scientific sessions and content specific to each educational track. Basic Science Track Our knowledge of autoimmunity, bone pathology and other aspects of rheumatic disease is expanding rapidly due to the important research data produced by scientists…
ROME, Italy—Even with classification criteria that have been updated and refined over time, rheumatoid arthritis is still a diagnosis that ultimately has to be made with clinical judgment, said Ronald van Vollenhoven, MD, PhD, professor of medicine and chief of clinical therapy research in inflammatory diseases at the Karolinska University in Sweden. His remarks came…
ROME, Italy—Fatigue, a problem experienced frequently by patients with rheumatic diseases, is best thought of as a survival mechanism and as a single phenomenon, not a condition that comes in a variety of forms, an expert said in a session at EULAR 2015, the annual congress of the European League Against Rheumatism (EULAR). Gene Regulated…
For 12 months, two studies examined the use of lesinurad in combination with allopurinol to treat gout, with patients achieving reduced serum uric acid levels and demonstrating no severe toxicity.
CHICAGO—With the approval of the Jak inhibitors (i.e., jakinibs) tofacitinib and ruxolitinib—and others being investigated—rheumatologists need to arm themselves with an understanding of these drugs so they can think critically when evaluating them and deciding how to use them, said John O’Shea, MD, chief of the Molecular Immunology and Inflammation Branch of and scientific director…
CHICAGO—Stem cell transplantation for systemic sclerosis patients has come a long way over the past decade, with more finely calibrated dosing and better patient selection, said George Georges, MD, associate member of the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center and associate professor in the medical oncology division at the University of Washington School of Medicine, Seattle,…