CHICAGO—The pre-clinical rheumatology curriculum at the University of North Carolina (UNC) School of Medicine, Chapel Hill, used to consist mainly of portions of a musculoskeletal course, with up to only three instructional hours, and not always with a rheumatologist in the room with students. Systemic autoimmune diseases were never fully discussed in any of the…
The ACR–Indian Rheumatology Association (IRA) International Fellows Exchange Program was developed in 2016 to foster scientific collaboration between members of the ACR and junior rheumatologists representing the IRA. I was lucky enough to be selected to participate in this exchange initiative, and I can’t thank these two organizations enough for working together to provide this…
New data suggest myeloid cells in SLE patients skew B and T cell activation status toward the M1 proinflammatory phenotype, thereby directing SLE flares and remission…
Research has found age at disease onset has an impact on prognosis for patients with primary Sjögren’s syndrome. In the study, early onset primary Sjögren’s syndrome was associated with severe, systemic disease and development of lymphoproliferative disease…
What does a new patient experience as symptoms develop and diagnosis is confirmed? The ARP Practice Committee is developing persona-based case studies to help answer this and other questions. The latest topic is juvenile idiopathic arthritis…
A study in mice suggests that targeting peptidyl arginine deiminases in lupus patients may have a therapeutic role in T cell-mediated diseases, affecting innate and adaptive immunity, as well as modulating dysregulated toll-like receptor 7-dependent immune responses…
CHICAGO—To drive home the importance of how social determinants can make or break a person’s health, Jillian Rose, LCSW, MPH, the director of community, engagement, diversity and research at the Hospital for Special Surgery in New York City, told a story about a gardener planting flowers at the 2018 ACR/ARHP Annual Meeting. In the story,…
CHICAGO—When it comes to correctly diagnosing joint pain in children, “things take time,” said Michael L. Miller, MD, quoting Danish physicist and poet Piet Hein. Children with pain but normal physical examinations may need to return to the clinic for repeat evaluation over several months. “I often tell parents that laboratory tests may help in…
BETHESDA, MD—Rheumatologists from the National Institutes of Health (NIH) and from Jerusalem, Israel, have identified deficiency of adenosine deaminase 2 (DADA2) as an important cause of familial polyarteritis nodosa, which tends to present in childhood and can manifest with hematologic, immunologic and inflammatory signs, says Chip Chambers, MD, founder and president of the DADA2 Foundation….
Patients who develop neuropsychiatric symptoms of SLE have a small nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) in an intron in a Ca++ ion channel gene that influences some, but not all, events regulated by Ca++. The SNP appears to influence activation induced apoptosis rates and cytokine production, specifically IL-4, in a disease- and genotype-specific manner…