The transition from pediatric to adult care can be a rocky one. For many rheumatology patients, any problems in the move can cause gaps in care. To address this issue, the American College of Rheumatology (ACR) joined the American College of Physicians’ (ACP) Pediatric to Adult Care Transitions Initiative. The Initiative is a project spearheaded…
When I started my rheumatology practice 40 years ago, it quickly became apparent that many referrals of presumed polymyalgia rheumatica (PMR) patients and presumed giant cell arteritis (GCA) patients were the recipients of devastating side effects from long-term corticosteroid (CS) use that could not be discontinued due to prompt recurrence of inflammatory phenomena. It was…
SAN FRANCISCO—Lung involvement is a frequent and often life-threatening manifestation of the connective tissue diseases (CTDs) that are commonly encountered by rheumatologists. A variety of rheumatic diseases can affect the lungs, including systemic sclerosis, rheumatoid arthritis, vasculitis, lupus, polymyositis/dermatomyositis (PM/DM) and Sjögren’s syndrome. A panel presentation on lung disease associated with rheumatic diseases at the…
A 12-year-old male established patient with inflammatory bowel disease with associated juvenile spondyloarthropathy returns to the office for a follow-up visit for his infliximab infusion. The patient reports moderate pain in his right hip after walking for extended periods of time or after sports activities. He denies any other joint pain and denies any joint…
CHICAGO—In October of last year, a 52-year-old woman came to see Kevin Winthrop, MD, MPH, associate professor in infectious diseases, public health and preventive medicine at the Oregon Health & Sciences University. She had rheumatoid arthritis and was taking methotrexate and prednisone. She had had little change in her RA disease severity and was considering…
After 60 years as a rheumatologist, Richard Panush, MD, has a unique perspective on the future of medical education, innovation and equality within our healthcare system. For all the recent changes and those to come, he says, “Medicine and rheumatology will be just fine—if not better.”
SAN FRANCISCO—What factors help determine whether or not inflammation resolves, leading to healing, or becomes chronic, leading to disease and tissue destruction? A number of important cells, including toll-like receptors, mast cells, anti-citrullinated protein antibodies, complement and interferon, all play their own role in this process. By understanding how they act in innate and adaptive…
Preventing infection in immunocompromised patients is challenging, especially with the increased use of biologic treatments, which have been known to reactivate latent infections, such as the herpes zoster virus. Nicolas Issa, MD, discusses recent vaccination research and prevention techniques to help this patient group avoid infection…
SAN FRANCISCO—The organisms in the gut are remarkably malleable with diet, dangling the possibility that diseases could potentially be affected by the food that people eat, according to an expert here at the 2015 ACR/ARHP Annual Meeting. Diet Starting with studies of animal feces from zoos and from the wild, in which researchers found that…
New research indicates that vaccination for the herpes zoster virus in patients with rheumatoid arthritis starting tofacitinib appears to be both safe and useful. Rheumatologists may want to check the patient’s pre-existing immunity status prior to administering the vaccine…