Lara C. Pullen, PhD, is a medical writer with a PhD in microbiology/immunology from Northwestern University’s Feinberg School of Medicine. As a medical writer she has covered topics as diverse as diabetes, cardiovascular disease, and autism. Her favorite subject, however, is the role of the immune system in health and disease. Dr. Pullen is also the mother of three children, the youngest of whom has Prader-Willi Syndrome (PWS). She is an active member of the PWS community and a thought leader on the importance of the ketogenic diet for this patient population.
HLA-B27 may be a phenotypic expression of axial spondyloarthritis (SpA), according to a large international study. The study found patients with axial SpA who were positive for HLA-B27 had more severe radiographic damage than those who were negative for HLA-B27, and three quarters of study patients with ankylosis spondyloarthritis were HLA-B27 positive.
Many women with inflammatory arthritis stop filling prescriptions for medications to treat their disease during pregnancy, putting themselves at risk of disability and joint damage. Birru Talabi et al. examined why, finding that some women discontinue their medications out of fear, while others receive conflicting advice from providers or misinformation about medication safety.
Doebl et al. compared the effect of symptoms and the healthcare use of people with fibromyalgia with those who fulfilled the criteria for fibromyalgia but had not been diagnosed and those with chronic pain. They found patients diagnosed with fibromyalgia reported the poorest healthcare experiences and were more likely than other study participants to be unemployed due to health issues. Their findings reveal an urgent need exists for a model of care for patients with fibromyalgia.
A study found DNA methylation profiling may predict if a patient will progress from a diagnosis of undifferentiated arthritis to that of rheumatoid arthritis (RA). The findings also suggest a pre-established epigenetic signature exists in patients diagnosed with undifferentiated arthritis that evolves into RA.
A study examined the effect of reducing the dose of conventional synthetic disease-modifying anti-rheumatic drugs (csDMARDs) by half in patients with RA in remission, finding the change increased the incidence of flare in 25% of patients.
A 2021 study demonstrated the prevalence of COVID-19 breakthrough infections in vaccinated healthcare workers, underlining the need for booster shots for this at-risk population.
Melissa Griffith, MD, discussed the diagnosis and treatment of interstitial lung disease (ILD) in patients with rheumatic diseases, including connective tissue disease and more.
Patients in intensive care may experience dangerous manifestations of rheumatic disease, such as digital ischemia, multi-system organ failure and more. In a session at ACR Convergence 2021, experts addressed how to manage and treat these critically ill patients.
ACR CONVERGENCE 2021—Rheumatology patients who test positive for COVID-19 would benefit from early use of monoclonal antibodies, said Luis Ostrosky-Zeichner, MD, chief of the Division of Infectious Diseases, McGovern Medical School, University of Texas Health Science Center (UTHealth), Houston, in a session about effective treatment options for COVID-19. Acknowledging that the SARS-CoV-2 virus has already…
At the ACR Convergence session CARE: Spondyloarthritis, Alexis Ogdie, MD, presented key principles of diagnosis & management of patients with spondyloarthritis.