Dominick Sudano, MD, an assistant professor at the University of Arizona and rheumatologist at Banner University Medical Center, Tucson, Ariz., knows how tough it is for patients living in remote areas to obtain a rheumatology consultation. “It’s not unusual for patients living in rural areas of Arizona to wait four to six months for a…
Farokh Jamalyaria, MD, a rheumatologist in Houston, never set out to become a birder. He remembers his first foray into birding as being completely unintentional. At 8 years old, while living in Ruston, La., he showed his mother an image of an ivory-billed woodpecker—an extinct species last spotted in the 1940s about 100 miles from…
Paul Sufka Named Social Media Editor for New ACR Twitter Account A clinical rheumatologist with HealthPartners in St. Paul, Minn., Paul Sufka, MD, is conversant with social media: he’s been on Twitter for almost 10 years; has hosted an online rheumatology podcast; and blogs about physician self-care and using Twitter as a tool at medical…
Eosinophilic fasciitis generally presents with the acute onset of edema followed by progressive skin induration in the setting of hypergammaglobulinemia, an elevated erythrocyte sedimentation rate (ESR) and peripheral eosinophilia in 63–93% of patients.1,2 Skin involvement is typically limited to 20.1% of total body surface area and most commonly involves the extremities symmetrically.1,3 The condition was…
Over the past few years, biosimilars and other new drugs have been introduced to treat rheumatic illnesses. Some of the conditions we treat have numerous drug option; others have few or only off-label options. This series, “Rheumatology Drugs at a Glance,” provides streamlined information on the administration of biologic, biosimilar and other medications used to…
In a second response letter, the FDA has cited the onset and duration of intravenous meloxicam, a non-opioid pain treatment, as concerns that it fails to meet prescriber expectations…
Antibody-secreting cells are important for the pathophysiology of SLE and RA, but researchers have been unable to determine how these cells are activated. A new technique is able to distinguish between naïve autoreactive B cells and established antibody secreting cells…
Using vibrational spectroscopy, investigators have discovered a characteristic signature in the blood of fibromyalgia patients that is distinct from other clinical conditions, including RA, OA and SLE…
LONDON (Reuters)—Scientists in the U.S. say they have taken a step toward developing a possible diagnostic test for chronic fatigue syndrome, a condition characterized by exhaustion and other debilitating symptoms. Researchers at Stanford University School of Medicine say a pilot study of 40 people, half of whom were healthy and half of whom had the…
NEW YORK (Reuters Health)—Rates of osteoporotic fracture were similar three years after starting either denosumab or alendronate in a real-world Danish population-based cohort study. “Previous studies have shown that denosumab is more efficacious than alendronate in increasing bone mineral density (BMD), possibly the best proxy outcome for subsequent fracture risk. However, previous studies were underpowered…