Intravenous rituximab can now be used to treat pediatric patients with GPA and MPA as young as two years old…


Intravenous rituximab can now be used to treat pediatric patients with GPA and MPA as young as two years old…

MADRID—During the 2019 European Congress of Rheumatology (EULAR), held June 12–15, speakers addressed the complexity of vasculitis in a Challenges in Clinical Practice session titled, How to Maintain Remission in Vasculitis. Although vasculitis appears in many varieties, one commonality exists among these related yet distinct conditions: When there is vital organ or systemic involvement, disease…

In ongoing work to validate data-driven outcome tools for clinical investigation in large vessel vasculitis, an international team of rheumatologists from the Outcome Measures in Rheumatology (OMERACT) Vasculitis Working Group has published a report on subclinical disease activity and patient perspectives on therapy response…

Rheumatologists can act as advocates for patients and their families in a way that supports targeting vasculitis early. Here’s how…

A proposed model to predict the risk of giant cell arteritis (GCA) prior to a temporal artery biopsy could help triage patients and guide decision making about the need for biopsy or monitoring (see Figure 1). There’s no specific biomarker for GCA, and GCA can be a “diagnostic conundrum, especially when it presents in an…

In 1866, Adolf Kussmaul, an internist, and Rudolf Maier, a pathologist, published the classic characterization of what eventually became known as polyarteritis nodosa.1 It was the first scientific clinical characterization of a noninfectious vasculitis. As such, it became a paradigmatic point of contrast to other types of vasculitides that were later described. Their description also…

SAN DIEGO—At the 2017 Thieves Market, held Nov. 6 at the ACR/ARHP Annual Meeting, rheumatologists from around the world presented patient cases to an audience of colleagues, who then voted via text messaging to choose the cases they felt were most perplexing or intriguing. The winner received a free 2018 Annual Meeting registration, and the…

SAN DIEGO—Top researchers gathered for a review course at the start of the 2017 ACR/ARHP Annual Meeting in November to describe new research, their own treatment strategies and new ways of thinking about an array of rheumatic diseases. Here are the highlights: Raynaud’s & Other Digit Problems When a patient walks into your clinic with…

Catherine Kolonko |
According to a large cohort study of pediatric patients, rituximab use is on the rise in the treatment of children diagnosed with vasculitis. Treatment with cyclophosphamide remains common, but it’s beginning to wane. Dialysis and mechanical ventilation also remain common, the study indicates. The retrospective study of hospitalized children in the U.S. included the largest…

Preconception planning is essential to help women with autoimmune disease have optimal pregnancy outcomes. Unplanned pregnancy can also negatively impact disease course in some patients. Yet many rheumatologic patients of childbearing age do not receive adequate contraception or prepregnancy education and counseling. Rheumatologists must work collaboratively with other healthcare providers to make sure rheumatic patients…