To speed the development of tocilizumab to treat giant cell arteritis (GCA), the FDA designated it as a breakthrough therapy earlier this month…
Search results for: gout flare
When Rheumatologists Are a Patient’s Second or Third Choice for Medical Opinion
Outside Exam Room No. 5, the chart rack was empty, so I assumed my new consult was late. Just in case, I looked back over my shoulder as I passed by the partially open door and glimpsed the lower half of a woman holding a three-ringed binder on her lap. I squinted and took a…
Rheumatology Coding Corner Questions: ICD-10 Coding Guidelines, Conventions Refresher Quiz Part 2
A patient returns for a follow-up visit of their chronic idiopathic gout without tophi with complaints of pain and tenderness. After a thorough examination, the rheumatologist treats the patient for an acute flare of the left knee. How is this coded? M1A.1620, M10.062 M1A.1620 M10.061 M10.062 From ICD-10 coding guidelines, what are the steps to…
Rheumatology Coding Corner Answers: ICD-10 Coding Guidelines, Conventions Refresher Quiz Part 2
Take the challenge. D—Even though the patient’s chief complaint is for a follow-up of chronic idiopathic gout without tophi, the patient is presenting with an acute flare of idiopathic gout of the left knee. Acute gout and chronic gout have specific coding guidelines, because they each have an Excludes 1 note. This indicates they are…
2015 ACR/ARHP Annual Meeting: Behçet’s Disease Poses Diagnosis, Treatment Challenges
SAN FRANCISCO—Behçet’s disease is a vasculitis that can be hard to pin down, with a wide variety of manifestations, many of which overlap with other auto-inflammatory conditions, an expert said at a clinical review course at the 2015 ACR/ARHP Annual Meeting. The most common feature is oral ulcers, which are expected to be seen at…
FDA Approves New Drugs for Pain
FDA Updates Belbuca, buccal-administered buprenorphine, has received U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approval for treating severe chronic pain.1 The dosage form is a dissolving film that is absorbed through the inner lining of the cheek for chronic pain management. It’s expected to be commercially available in the first quarter of 2016. Seven dosage strengths…
Rheumatologist Steven S. Overman Reflects on His Last Day of Practice, Future of Specialty
I am a few weeks post-retirement. Having written thank you notes and completed urgent home projects, I swing in a hammock at our currently fire-threatened cabin north of Winthrop, Wash., and reflect. I feel like a young boy while freely flipping pages of a hand-scribed picture book, The Principles of Uncertainty, by Maira Kalman. She…
Medication Non-Adherence by Rheumatology Patients & What Rheumatologists Can Do
Lack of efficacy, poor DAS scores may be misinterpreted as a drug failure
2014 ACR/ARHP Annual Meeting: Rheumatology Drug Updates, Safety News
Plus, hydrocodone combination products and brodalumab
Cryopyrin-Associated Periodic Syndromes: Difficult to Recognize, Diagnose, Treat
Two case studies demonstrate the difficulty, delay in recognizing this rare autoinflammatory disease