SAN FRANCISCO—The challenges of trying to solve the puzzle of lupus, in light of its broad heterogeneity of symptoms, manifestations in clinical involvement and treatment response, and the sheer complexities of the immune system, are driving researchers into ever more elaborate investigations of how the immune system functions in lupus patients. Genetic, transcriptomic and epigenetic…
I would like to tell you a story. Two, actually. I am just returning from the 19th International Vasculitis and ANCA Workshop, which is always a fascinating meeting. In its inception, it was a workshop, in the true sense of the word. Now, we discuss anti-neutrophil cytoplasmic antibody (ANCA) testing as casually as we discuss…
Greetings from Washington, D.C., where ACR leaders just held more than 100 meetings on Capitol Hill supporting reforms to step therapy and prior authorization, increased reimbursement for dual-energy X-ray absorptiometry (DXA), solutions to the rheumatology workforce shortage, and rheumatology-specific research at the Pentagon. We’re already hearing great news about our successes: Hours after our visit,…
“Hi, I’m Dr. Kumar, and I’m an allergist,” is something I sometimes fumble when I introduce myself to confused rheumatology patients, before I quickly correct myself with, “… well, I’m also a rheumatologist.” There’s a moment of slight embarrassment that I crossed my circuits, but otherwise I’m proud to say I’m certified in both. This…
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…
Dozens of rheumatology leaders met with more than 100 politicos on Capitol Hill in mid-May, per the ACR’s annual Advocacy Leadership Conference. Armed with research and advocacy training concerning a handful of important issues, rheumatologists, researchers, government affairs specialists and others met with federal lawmakers, legislative aides and correspondents. The two-day conference, which featured the…
A group led by Sarah Ringold, MD, MS, assistant professor of rheumatology at Seattle Children’s Hospital, has developed a new guideline intended to provide recommendations for the treatment and monitoring of children with juvenile idiopathic arthritis (JIA) manifesting as non-systemic polyarthritis, sacroiliitis or enthesitis.1,2 Key Updates The new recommendations appear in both Arthritis & Rheumatology…
As soon as pediatric patients are diagnosed with juvenile idiopathic arthritis (JIA), they should also be screened for uveitis, says ophthalmologist Gary Holland, MD. Otherwise, the University of California, Los Angeles, provider says, “Kids who are diagnosed with JIA may not come to an ophthalmologist until they have vision-limiting complications.” Uveitis is the most common…
On May 16, ACR and ARP leaders serving on the Board of Directors, Affiliate Society Council, Government Affairs Committee, Committee on Rheumatologic Care, RheumPAC and Insurance Subcommittee will go to Capitol Hill to advocate on behalf of the College’s membership and our patients. The group represents 31 states and the District of Columbia, and will…
CHICAGO—At Hot Topics in Myositis, a session at the 2018 ACR/ARHP Annual Meeting, three experts discussed new classification criteria for idiopathic inflammatory myopathies (IIM) and offered practical primers on overlap myositis conditions and inclusion body myositis (IBM). New Myositis Classification Criteria After a 10-year development process, the new EULAR/ACR Classification Criteria for Adult and Juvenile…