Antiphospholipid syndrome (APS) is an autoimmune condition characterized by hypercoagulability often manifested as recurrent thrombosis or pregnancy complications, with persistently circulating antiphospholipid (aPL) antibodies or lupus anticoagulant. Catastrophic APS (CAPS), also known as Asherson syndrome, occurs in less than 1% of cases of APS and involves occlusive microangiopathy in at least three organ systems.1 Case…
The Friday night press release: When a politician or any public figure needs to disclose unfavorable news, chances are they will release it sometime on a late Friday afternoon or evening, hoping that nobody is paying attention. In fact, this behavior was coined “the take out the trash day” on the television political drama, The…
The Lupus Initiative (TLI) has been an emergent creation inside the American College of Rheumatology (ACR) for the past six years. In 2009, the Office of Minority Health and Office of Women’s Health (now called the Office of Health Disparities) solicited an application from the ACR to develop resources for educating non-rheumatologists, both in training…
About a year ago, I stuffed all my earthly belongings into my black Volkswagen Jetta and set out on a 10-hour interstate journey. I had just graduated from residency at the University of Kentucky and was headed westward, to Iowa City, for a fresh start as a rheumatology fellow. During the 10 hours I spent…
Pain can be reduced and functionality significantly improved for children with fibromyalgia without drug therapy, according to a study of 64 children in Philadelphia. Researchers combined intensive physical therapy and psychotherapy in individualized programs to treat the fibromyalgia patients…
NEW YORK (Reuters Health)—Medical practitioners’ performance suffers when they are exposed to rudeness, new findings show. Neonatal intensive care unit (NICU) team members who heard disparaging comments while participating in a simulation exercise had lower diagnostic and procedural performance scores compared to team members who didn’t hear rude comments, Dr. Arieh Riskin, of Bnai-Zion Medical…
The FDA is investigating the safety of MRIs using gadolinium-based contrast agents, which recent studies have shown may leave deposits of those chemicals in patients’ brain tissue after multiple scans…
LONDON (Reuters)—The Chinese market is getting tougher for Western pharmaceutical companies as Beijing bears down on a rising healthcare bill and prices come under pressure. The country, which has overtaken Japan as the world’s second largest market for prescription medicines after the U.S., has drawn major investment from global drugmakers in recent years — but…
NEW YORK (Reuters Health)—Two classes of inflammatory diseases, uveitis and psoriatic disease, appear linked, as a diagnosis of one increases the risk of developing the other, new research has found. A study of Danish patient registries found nearly triple the rate of uveitis among patients with psoriatic arthritis compared to the general population, and double…
(Reuters)—Closer coordination between healthcare facilities and public health departments could save 37,000 U.S. lives over five years by preventing infections from antibiotic-resistant germs and from Clostridium difficile, according to a government report released on Tuesday. Germs that no longer respond to antibiotics cause more than 2 million illnesses and 23,000 deaths each year in the…