Two clinical diagnosticians presented their pearls of wisdom for clinical rheumatologists to take forward when managing patients from the clinics to the hospital wards.
The Review Course at ACR Convergence 2025 provided a comprehensive update for practitioners. Highlights from the sections on SLE and lupus nephritis, inflammatory brain diseases, drug management of rheumatic diseases and mimics of inflammatory myopathies.
Although research is still emerging, evidence suggests changes in climate, such as increases in heat, pollution and allergens, may increase the risk of flare and hospitalization in patients with rheumatoid arthritis, systemic lupus erythematosus and other rheumatic conditions. Paul Dellaripa, MD, discussed the research and how rheumatologists can help their patients.
Meghan Berkenstock, MD, summarized key clinical pearls related to uveitis and rheumatic diseases during a session of the 18th Annual Advances in the Diagnosis & Treatment of the Rheumatic Diseases symposium.
Background & objectives: Patients with rheumatic and musculoskeletal diseases (RMDs) may be at an increased risk of SARS-CO-V2 infection as a result of underlying disease, associated comorbidities and use of potentially immunosuppressive treatments. Further, concern exists regarding whether individuals with rheumatic diseases potentially experience more severe COVID-19 and poorer outcomes. This study was undertaken to…
Secher et al. evaluated the risk of pre-eclampsia in pregnant patients with RA, axSpA or PsA, assessing the effect of disease activity and disease-modifying anti-rheumatic drugs on this risk.
In January A&R, Simon et al. report a study to assess humoral and cellular immune responses after infection with, or vaccination against, SARS-CoV-2 in patients with B cell depletion and controls who are B cell competent, finding that B cell depletion completely blocks humoral but not T cell SARS-CoV-2 vaccination response. In the same issue, Connolly et al. evaluated disease flare and post-vaccination reactions in patients with rheumatic and musculoskeletal diseases following messenger RNA (mRNA) vaccination.
In their new study, Fike et al. found Latino patients with rheumatic diseases have a higher rate of COVID-19 than the general Latino population. Obesity is a risk factor for COVID-19, and COVID-19 is a risk factor for rheumatic disease flare.
NEW YORK (Reuters Health)—COVID-19-infected patients with rheumatic disease were more likely to experience respiratory failure than those without rheumatic disease, according to a retrospective study in China. “Immune dysregulation underlying rheumatic diseases may affect the disease manifestation of COVID-19,” Dr. Jixin Zhong of Huazhong University of Science and Technology, Wuhan, tells Reuters Health by email….