Experts at ACR Convergence 2020 addressed how diet & the body’s microbiome affect chronic diseases.

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Experts at ACR Convergence 2020 addressed how diet & the body’s microbiome affect chronic diseases.
Lisa Rapaport |
(Reuters Health)—Many pregnant women with rheumatoid arthritis (RA) may achieve low disease activity in the third trimester with a modern treatment regimen that includes anti-tumor necrosis factor (TNF) medications, a recent study suggests. Researchers examined data on 309 patients with RA who were pregnant or trying to conceive and who were treated with modern treat-to-target…
COVID-19-related deaths are significantly higher in communities with higher proportions of Black, Latinx, Asian American or other racial/ethnic minorities.
Allison Plitman |
In September 2020, the ACR received a $7 million grant for a four-pronged SLE approach that seeks to address gaps and inequities in SLE through physician education, medical school outreach, pediatric support and disease management.

Experts discuss the diagnosis and treatment of myositis-related cardiovascular disease.

The use of an interleukin (IL) 17A inhibitor resulted in gut microbial dysbiosis and features of subclinical intestinal inflammation in a subgroup of psoriatic arthritis (PsA) and spondyloarthritis (SpA) patients, according to a multidisciplinary, collaborative study across several institutions published in Arthritis & Rheumatology.1 Understanding the downstream effects of these perturbations is an important step…

In a controlled, large-cohort, longitudinal study from Canada, Atiquazzaman et al. found that use of non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs) substantially contributes to increased cardiovascular disease risk among people with osteoarthritis (OA).1 This is the first study to evaluate the mediating role that NSAIDs play in the association between OA and cardiovascular disease (CVD), and the…

Mohammad A. Ursani, MD, RhMSUS, Ojas Naik, MD, Rohaan Khan & William F. Glass II, MD, PhD |
Drug-induced lupus erythematosus and ANCA-associated vasculitis (AAV) are both autoimmune conditions associated with the use of hydralazine, a commonly prescribed drug for hypertension and congestive heart failure. Although the pathogenesis is unknown, it is believed that hydralazine alters neutrophil and lymphocyte function and promotes exposure of antigens, leading to the development of anti-neutrophil antibodies (ANCA)…

Renal arteriosclerosis is common in lupus patients with nephritis and occurs two decades earlier than it does in people without lupus nephritis (LN), report investigators in a study that examined the prevalence of renal arteriosclerosis in LN patients compared with healthy controls.1 The finding suggests that renal arteriosclerosis could be used as a biomarker for…

William J. Scheuing, MD, Nitasha Kumar, MD, William Davis, MD, & Robert Quinet, MD |
Hydralazine has been in use as a treatment for hypertension, most notably in heart failure patients, since 1951.1 The drug is a known cause of autoimmune disease, most specifically hydralazine-induced lupus. Hydralazine-induced lupus occurs in 7–13% of those taking the medication.2-4 It often presents with constitutional symptoms, arthritis/arthralgias, cutaneous lesions, serositis, myalgias and/or hepatomegaly. Features…