Complement can deposit in various tissues, and previous studies have associated complement deposition with an increased risk for all-cause mortality and stroke. Now, new research underscores the relationship between rheumatic disease, the complement system and cardiovascular disease. In particular, inflammatory rheumatic disease status appears to be uniquely associated with mononuclear cell infiltrates in the vascular…
Although systemic lupus erythematosus still does not have a definite cause or cure, rheumatologists and researchers over the past 50 years have witnessed and contributed to a great deal of progress that helps patients, says Peter H. Schur, MD, director emeritus of the Lupus Center, Brigham and Women’s Hospital, and professor, Harvard Medical School, Boston. Dr. Schur’s…
Investigators at Brigham and Women’s Hospital recently discovered a novel subset of peripheral helper T cells (TPH) that drive rheumatoid arthritis (RA) inflammation. Originally published in the February issue of Nature, findings from this study provided bedrock knowledge for developing new RA therapies. Now, with funding from the Rheumatology Research Foundation, investigators are expanding on…
NEW YORK (Reuters Health—Telemedicine follow up based on patient-reported outcome (PRO) is noninferior to conventional outpatient care for tight control of disease activity in rheumatoid arthritis (RA) patients with low disease activity or remission, new findings show. “Even though patients in the [telemedicine] follow-up groups requested more acute visits, they over-all had a more than…
Patients with rheumatoid arthritis need a way to manage their fatigue outside of the standard treatment regime, says Patti Katz, PhD. “We found that increasing physical activity [by using a pedometer] did indeed make a difference in peoples’ fatigue level. … And it doesn’t make them hurt more.”…
New research has examined the risk of cardiovascular disease (CVD), as well as myocardial infarction and ischemic stroke, for patients with systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE) in a large-scale population-based study. Researchers found that patients with SLE have a greater than two-fold increased risk of developing CVD. This risk is greatest during the first year after diagnosis and remains elevated for at least five years…
Most SLE clinical trials continue standard background medications being taken by patients at entry, based on assumptions that this minimizes the risk of serious flares and that immunologic interference is minimal. These assumptions are not evidence based, but eliminating polypharmacy in trials studying patients with active lupus remains controversial. These researchers tested the withdrawal of immunosuppressants to make SLE trial results more interpretable…
A 53-year-old female presented to the clinic for severe polyarticular joint pain and was found to have a seronegative inflammatory arthritis. Six months before, she had completed 10 months of treatment for stage IV metastatic melanoma with the immune checkpoint inhibitors, nivolumab and ipilimumab, achieving complete remission of her cancer. She said that throughout her…
Doctors have had few options to treat the chronic rheumatoid arthritis-like symptoms associated with chikungunya virus infections beyond over-the-counter pain relievers. A recent study in Science Translational Medicine has spurred new optimism by finding that a combination therapy—the anti-rheumatic drug abatacept paired with a chikungunya-neutralizing monoclonal antibody—abolished acute symptoms in infected mice.1 The strategy must…
The Rheumatology Research Foundation is now offering the Innovative Research Award for Community Practitioners; tailored for physicians interested in disease investigation, it supports research ideas specific to clinical practice. The distinct perspective of clinical rheumatologists opens a window of opportunity for disease investigation that merits support for novel research. With the increasing prevalence of rheumatic…