ACR CONVERGENCE 2020—A scientific session on Sunday, Nov. 8, focused on vaccine prospects in COVID-19. Dan Barouch, MD, PhD, director of the Center for Virology and Vaccine Research at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center and the William Bosworth Castle Professor of Medicine at Harvard Medical School in Boston, shared his insights about vaccine development across…
ACR CONVERGENCE 2020—At the ACR’s fully virtual annual meeting on Saturday, Nov. 7, Anthony S. Fauci, MD, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID) since 1984, delivered a special lecture on COVID-19, from virology to therapy to vaccine development. Novel Coronavirus, Familiar Vectors When Chinese physicians first reported infections by what…
ACR CONVERGENCE 2020—Rheumatoid arthritis (RA) has been postulated to develop in several phases, with inherited susceptibility factors in some cases leading to asymptomatic (or preclinical) citrullinated protein-directed autoimmunity, followed, after some interval, by the development of synovial infiltration and polyarticular disease. We know early treatment of RA is critical to reduce disease symptoms and slow…
ACR CONVERGENCE 2020—At the annual meeting’s second Plenary Session, Saturday, Nov. 7, speakers highlighted phase 2 results of a potential new biologic for systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE), as well as data on remission maintenance in rheumatoid arthritis (RA) after withdrawal of etanercept or methotrexate. Phase 2 Trial of Monoclonal Antibody for Lupus (LILAC) Several converging…
ACR CONVERGENCE 2020—Among the many ways in which the COVID-19 pandemic has changed the face of modern medicine is the emergence of multisystem inflammatory syndrome in children (MIS-C), a rare but serious condition that shares many features of Kawasaki disease (KD). With this topic in mind, leading pediatric experts from around the world came together…
ACR CONVERGENCE 2020—In patients with connective tissue diseases, such as systemic sclerosis (SSc), pulmonary hypertension (PH) remains one of the leading causes of morbidity and mortality. In her lecture on Friday, Nov. 6, Pulmonary Hypertension: An Update, Mardi Gomberg-Maitland, MD, MSc, professor of medicine and medical director of the Pulmonary Hypertension Program at The George…
ACR CONVERGENCE 2020—In many ways, the current plethora of treatment options for rheumatoid arthritis patients represents an embarrassment of riches. However, while many therapeutics approved by the U.S. Food & Drug Administration (FDA) are available, knowing the order in which to try these medications with patients can be quite challenging. In The Great Debate, held…
ACR CONVERGENCE 2020—Moderated by Bill St.Clair, MD, MACR, an ACR past president and a professor of medicine and immunology at Duke University Medical Center, Durham, N.C., an abstract session on Friday, Nov. 6, focused on the diagnosis, manifestations and outcomes of rheumatoid arthritis (RA), with a focus on interstitial lung disease. RA with ILD Jeffrey…
ACR CONVERGENCE 2020—The ACR’s first fully virtual annual meeting kicked off on Thursday, Nov. 5. During the Opening Session, ACR President Ellen M. Gravallese, MD, talked about how the specialty’s response during the pandemic has provided great hope and will help rheumatology become an even more essential specialty. At the first Plenary Session on Friday,…
In light of the release of the ACR’s new gout guideline, it’s not surprising that 50 abstracts of studies on various aspects of gout were accepted at ACR Convergence 2020. Here, we highlight just a few: