She wanted me to call in an antibiotic. My sister, a lawyer, often tells me how the ethics of her profession govern even her extra-professional acts. She feels that when she was sworn into the New York State bar, she lost the freedom to bend the truth. She would never, for example, attempt to smuggle…
A bill introduced in January in the Washington Legislature would allow pediatric and juvenile rheumatologists to access the state’s loan forgiveness program.
A 14-year-old girl is referred to your office for fatigue and arthralgias. While you’re obtaining her past medical history, she divulges that she has had four episodes of bilateral parotitis, each lasting two weeks. An otolaryngologist evaluated her. She lacked sicca symptoms, had a normal complete blood count (CBC), normal inflammatory markers and a negative…
In the middle of a busy clinic I go to see my next patient, a 16-year-old girl with a swollen knee. I had seen her the week before and, after discussing the options regarding treatment of her arthritis, had organized a joint injection for today. As I walk in the door she emphatically informs me,…
The idiopathic inflammatory myopathies (IIM) encompass eight categories: 1) dermatomyositis (DM) in adults, 2) juvenile dermatomyositis, 3) amyopathic DM, 4) cancer-associated DM, 5) polymyositis, 6) immune-mediated necrotizing myopathy, 7) inclusion body myositis, and 8) overlap myositis.1 These categories help classify the myopathies based on clinical and histologic features. The incidence of IIM is estimated at…
Predictive data models can be used to identify when patients may miss their appointments, reduce these incidents and increase scheduling efficiency. Here are some tips for the physician practice setting…
Three full-time, ACR advocacy staffers are now working in Washington, D.C., to provide a daily presence for national rheumatology lobbying efforts.
Rheumatoid arthritis (RA) is a systemic autoimmune disease that affects approximately 1% of the adult population, and involvement of extra-articular tissue occurs in approximately 40% of patients over their lifetimes.1 RA-associated pericardial disease is an uncommon complication, and surgery is the only definitive therapy—according to current literature. In this report, we present the case of…
As Ellen M. Gravallese, MD, begins the ACR presidency, her goals include workforce expansion, improved access to care and support for members in all areas of practice.
New research seeking to describe the characteristics of undefined, systemic autoinflammatory diseases may have identified distinct subgroups, including pericarditis and intellectual impairment…