Baseball is a great sport. It’s fascinating to watch the evolving duel between pitcher and batter. As the former employs their remarkably powerful and versatile rotator cuff and forearm flexor muscles to hurl blazing pitches, the latter engages their exceptionally honed hand–eye neural link to make contact with the ball. Baseball is the ultimate summertime…
(Reuters Health)—Doctors who were asked about causes of inappropriate care at the end of life didn’t have to look far to place blame. They blamed themselves. Australian researchers interviewed 96 physicians from 10 medical specialties and asked them to describe situations when patients received end of life care that the doctors felt was inappropriate. Futile…
I’m writing in regard to the article, “Fever of Unknown Origin” (TR, March 2016), by Charles Radis, DO. In regard to the non-caseating granulomas, there was no mention of epithelioid or giant cells. In addition, it was mainly [complement] C4 in the center of the granulomas, which is often found in sarcoidosis. Moreover, whether these…
Rheumatoid arthritis (RA) is rarely associated with renal manifestations, but secondary amyloidosis due to chronic inflammation is reported to be the etiology of renal dysfunction in many cases of RA.1,2 The discovery of biologic therapy, with TNF-alpha inhibitors in particular, made a huge difference in the disease course and prognosis of RA patients. However, TNF-alpha…
CHICAGO—Celiac disease—the gluten-induced illness that can be seen alongside rheumatic diseases—has been seen much more commonly over the past 20 years than it was previously, but the illness can come with questions that are not always straightforward, an expert said at the ACR’s State-of-the-Art Clinical Symposium. The disease, in which the small intestine becomes inflamed…
CHICAGO—Nine out of 10 scleroderma cases include clinical signs of gastrointestinal (GI) involvement, with severe involvement associated with high mortality rates, but the pathology of this is not very well understood, a GI expert said at the ACR’s State-of-the-Art Clinical Symposium. That has left clinicians with a slate of treatments—anti-reflux, antimicrobials and prokinetics—that address only…
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…
Spotting the signs of autoimmunity as early as possible is often viewed as a positive goal for rheumatologic research. The premise: Patients may begin treatment years before their disease is active and destroying joints and tissue. Although much progress has been made in identifying early stages of rheumatoid arthritis pathogenesis, the clues are not as…
Forty-five years ago, a computer engineer in Boston sent an electronic message between two computers some 10 feet apart. It took another 10 years or so before the electronic mail message was dubbed email—a term now, perhaps, more ubiquitous than any other in the lexicon of modern communications. Despite the seemingly definitive place email communication…
Sometimes, life calls for you to be out of the office for a length of time. Whether the absence is planned or not, it’s important to consider the best actions to take given the circumstances to ensure patients are cared for during your absence. Alexa Meara, MD, clinical instructor and rheumatologist, The Ohio State University…