ACR CONVERGENCE 2020—Attention to bone health in people at risk of developing, or who already have, osteoporosis is essential to reduce their increased risk for fragility fractures. Major risk factors for osteoporosis include being female, white, of small frame and having a family history of osteoporosis, as well as having secondary causes of osteoporosis, such…
Search results for: vertebral fracture
Premenopausal Osteoporosis Poses Special Clinical Challenges
ATLANTA—Osteoporosis in premenopausal women is uncommon compared with its frequency in post-menopausal women, but when it is suspected, it poses some difficult questions for clinicians: How should it be diagnosed in this understudied population? If found, should it be treated—and how? Elizabeth Shane, MD, professor of medicine at Columbia University and attending physician at New…
Case Report: Acne Drug Leads Patient to Retinoid Hyperostosis
Presentation A 26-year-old man with a history of acne vulgaris and hidradenitis suppurativa presented to our rheumatology clinic with persistent back pain and stiffness of three years’ duration. He described bilateral low back pain that was worse when he arose in the morning and at night when he was trying to sleep. In a similar…
How Does Down Syndrome Affect Musculoskeletal Health?
Down syndrome (trisomy 21) is one of the most common chromosomal abnormalities. According to the Genomic Resource Centre of the World Health Organization, each year 3,000–5,000 children are born with this chromosome disorder, and about 250,000 families have at least one member with Down syndrome in the U.S. Down syndrome is caused by numerical aneuploidy,…
Spine Surgery May not Be Needed to Ease Back Pain from Osteoporosis
(Reuters Health)—Patients with acute pain from osteoporosis damage to the spine don’t experience any more relief from surgery to inject cement into cracked or broken vertebrae than they would with a sham procedure, a recent trial in The Netherlands suggests. All of the patients in the experiment had compression fractures, which can happen when osteoporosis…
Medical Paradoxes in Clinic, Lab Should Encourage Physicians to Reappraise Ideas about Health and Disease
Wash your hands. This most basic tenet of proper hygiene has been drummed into our heads for years. It’s an obvious infection prevention activity, yet for years, compliance among physicians and other caregivers has been lackluster. To rectify this matter, regulatory agencies began auditing hospital staff adherence to this axiom of infection prevention. Not only…
Paleopathology Uses Patients from the Past to Investigate Today’s Diseases
Evidence of disease in prehistoric skeletons can provide clues to early characteristics of rheumatoid arthritis, calcium pyrophosphate deposition disease, and other joint disorders
Veteran Rheumatologist Takes Expedition Medicine Trip to Rural Nepal
Steven S. Overman, MD, MPH, shares medical knowledge, supplies, and clinical practice expertise with locals in rewarding visit to Nepal’s Upper Mustang region
Rheumatology Drug Updates
Information on new approvals and medication safety that rheumatologists need to know
Minerals, Mud, Martinis, and Methylprednisone
How the practice of rheumatology differs in America and Europe.