Despite our best efforts and modern interventions, we still have patients in the intensive care unit with organ failure. Although renal failure can be mitigated by dialysis, patients with cardiac or respiratory failure secondary to active autoimmune disease raise difficult clinical and ethical issues. Two recent cases, both with organ failure, led us to examine…
SAN DIEGO—Recent research tells us more about giant cell arteritis (GCA) to help rheumatologists more accurately diagnose and effectively treat patients with this type of vasculitis. On Nov. 6 at the ACR/ARHP Annual Meeting, three experts explored the latest findings on GCA pathogenesis, diagnostic approaches, imaging modalities and growing treatment options. GCA: What’s Really Happening?…
SAN DIEGO—What are the predisposing genes that suggest who will develop active systemic lupus erythematosus and who will stay healthy? Decades of research data help rheumatologists clarify this picture, says Argyrios N. Theofilopoulos, MD, professor of immunology and microbiology at Scripps Research Institute in La Jolla, Calif. At his Nov. 5 lecture at the 2017…
In November 2017, I went to Lucknow, India, where I would spend my time as an exchange fellow at the Sanjay Gandhi Postgraduate Institute of Medical Sciences (SGPIMS) as part of the ACR International Visiting Fellows Exchange Program. Where I Come From I completed my medical degree at Mahatma Gandhi Missions Medical College, Navi Mumbai…
Various drugs are known to cause musculoskeletal symptoms, such as arthralgias, myalgias, drug-induced lupus and serum sickness.1 In the rheumatology world, the most commonly recognized drugs that can cause musculoskeletal symptoms are hydralazine, minocycline, fluoroquinolones and, recently, the dipeptidyl peptidase 4 (DPP-4) inhibitor class of medications. Although beta blockers also have a noted side effect…
Patients can experience many different types of pain, and some patients with chronic pain may believe that only opioids will help them. According to Kelly Weselman, MD, the best way to begin managing pain is to determine its root cause and communicate with the patient about the best approach(es) for decreasing their specific pain…
ARHP Member Named to AOTF Board of Trustees (2018–20) Nancy A. Baker, ScD, MPH, OTR, recently took on a new role, joining the American Occupational Therapy Foundation’s (AOTF’s) Board of Trustees. The AOTF is a charitable organization with a mission to support scientific and educational programming for occupational therapy. It provides most of the grants…
SAN DIEGO—In a roundup of current research in rheumatoid arthritis (RA) presented at the 2017 ACR/ARHP Annual Meeting Nov. 3–8, Mark C. Genovese, MD, professor of medicine in the Division of Immunology and Rheumatology at Stanford University, Palo Alto, Calif., urged his audience to reflect on the impact therapy advances have made on RA. “In…
SAN DIEGO—During a session at the ACR/ARHP 2017 Annual Meeting Nov. 3–8, three representatives from the federal government described several of the government’s varied national strategies and agencies that are tackling pain. All of these strategies are affected by the current national epidemic of opioid overdoses and the need for safer analgesic prescribing. But the…
Rheumatologists working in every practice setting face a number of challenges that can seem insurmountable. How do you cost-effectively manage administrative burdens? How do you establish an efficient and effective approach to capturing quality metrics? How do you maintain the critical elements of the care you provide, such as diagnostic musculoskeletal ultrasound and patient access…