CHICAGO—Approximately 200,000 health apps are available through major app stores. Some offer real benefits, said Brennan Spiegel, MD, MSHS, director of health services research at Cedars-Sinai Health System, Los Angeles, Calif. But most, he told attendees at the 2018 ACR/ARHP Annual Meeting, are “rubbish.” “They do one or two things only—and generally not well,” he…
The evaluation of a child with arthralgia who has a normal physical examination provides a challenge to rheumatologists. Here are some insights into assessing and treating children with musculoskeletal pain syndromes…
CHICAGO—Joint trauma is one of many potential drivers of osteoarthritis disease activity and structural progression. In Post-Traumatic OA: Pathogenesis, Clinical Evolution and Management, a session at the 2018 ACR/ARHP Annual Meeting, experts discussed the effects of sports and other injuries on even young patients’ joints. Post-traumatic osteoarthritis (OA) may account for 12% of hip, knee…
CHICAGO—Many nonsurgical therapies are available for knee osteoarthritis pain, but they vary greatly in effectiveness. “How should I proceed and figure out what to do with our patients?” asked David T. Felson, MD, MPH, professor of medicine at Boston University School of Medicine, during OA Management Without Surgery in 2018, a session at the 2018…
NEW YORK (Reuters)—Pfizer Inc. said on Friday that it plans to hike U.S. prices on 41 of its medicines in January, after walking back its previous price increases this summer under pressure from President Donald Trump. The company said in a statement that the increases would be on around 10% of its drugs. Pfizer said…
Donah Zack Crawford, MA, was a research coordinator at the University of Pennsylvania, focused on premenstrual syndrome and perimenopause, when her symptoms first started. “Someone suggested I see a rheumatologist,” she says, and not long after, Philadelphia-based physician Bruce Hoffman, MD, diagnosed her with rheumatoid arthritis. It was the mid-1990s, and treatment options were limited….
Systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE) is a heterogeneous, autoimmune, inflammatory, connective tissue disease affecting multiple organs. Neither central nervous system nor peripheral nervous systems are spared. The neurologic system is involved in a wide range of 10–80% of patients with SLE. Peripheral neuropathy, such as Guillain-Barré syndrome (GBS) and its variants, can occur in neurologic complications…
With the 2018 ACR/ARHP Annual Meeting nearly upon us, the time has come to plan your trip to Chicago. The Annual Meeting is Oct. 19–24 at McCormick Center, which means attendees will see beautiful views of Lake Michigan and the Chicago skyline, highlighting the city’s unique architecture. The weather in October, although unpredictable, is generally…
Immune checkpoint inhibitors (ICIs) are at the forefront of advances in cancer therapy and have shown promising results for progression-free survival. Checkpoint signaling pathways, such as cytotoxic T-lymphocyte antigen 4 (CTLA-4) and programmed cell death protein 1 (PD-1), normally regulate the immune response to promote self-tolerance and prevent tissue damage and inflammation. PD-1 is a…
AMSTERDAM—Research in myositis treatments is beginning to find its way, with investigators pursuing avenues special to the disease so therapy for patients may no longer involve piggybacking on existing treatments for other illnesses, an expert said at EULAR: the Annual European Congress of Rheumatology. “Finally, in myositis there are targets being investigated that are more…