A recent U.K. study assessed the use of the Perrin technique to diagnose chronic fatigue syndrome based on five physical signs of disease. Overall, researchers found the accuracy of diagnosis by allied health professionals was highest when using tests for only two signs: tender coelic plexus and postural/mechanical disturbances of the thoracic spine…
SAN DIEGO—After sifting through the nitty-gritty of the rheumatic disease literature on basic science, Richard Pope, MD—professor of medicine specializing in rheumatology at Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine—underscored several findings he thought stood out from the pack in his Year in Review talk at the 2017 ACR/ARHP Annual Meeting. He reviewed findings from November…
RETRACTED Editor’s note: The study this article reported on was retracted by the researchers. Key aspects could not be replicated, and they said, “Most importantly, the findings from behaviour studies and sequencing of microglia isolated from 564Igi autoimmune mice as shown in Figs. 1a, b, d and 3a, b are not substantiated upon further analysis…
ZURICH (Reuters)—Swiss drugmaker Novartis is to cut 450 jobs in the United States over the next two years as it gradually shuts a generics manufacturing plant in Colorado and discontinues some products in the face of intense price pressures. “To remain competitive in the U.S., Novartis will discontinue or divest limited growth products in saturated…
Mvasi, a biosimilar to the cancer drug Avastin, is approved for certain colorectal, lung, brain, kidney and cervical cancers The U.S. Food and Drug Administration today approved Mvasi (bevacizumab-awwb) as a biosimilar to Avastin (bevacizumab) for the treatment of multiple types of cancer. Mvasi is the first biosimilar approved in the U.S. for the treatment…
“Man may be the captain of his fate, but he is also the victim of his blood sugar.” —Wilfrid Oakley, MB BChir, an early pioneer in diabetes care Perusing the list of the most notable medical achievements in the 20th century, a reader may conclude that the discovery of insulin should rank in a category…
The patient was a 48-year-old woman who saw her primary care physician for a flu-like illness three months prior to admission. Her symptoms initially improved, but recurred one month later; she was treated symptomatically, and again symptoms resolved. Two months later, she presented to an outside facility’s emergency department with fever to 103ºF, with associated…
CHICAGO—Delia Chiaramonte, MD, associate director of education at the Center for Integrative Medicine at the University of Maryland School of Medicine in Baltimore, presented the newest thinking on pain to a gathering of rheumatologists at the ACR’s State-of-the-Art Clinical Symposium in April. She began by explaining that pain is more than nociception. Nociception stimulates nerves to…
Case Presentation The patient was a 42-year-old African American female diagnosed with systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE) based on the findings of polyarthritis, malar and discoid rash, fatigue, positive double-stranded DNA (dsDNA) ribonucleoprotein and Smith antibodies, and low serum complement levels. Her SLE had been well controlled on hydroxychloroquine 400 mg daily, oral methotrexate 25 mg…
WASHINGTON, D.C.—Successful management of pain remains a challenge for rheumatologists. Five research abstracts presented at the 2016 ACR/ARHP Annual Meeting in a session titled Pain—Basic and Clinical Aspects offered new insights on pain sensitization, and the risks and effects of various pain therapies. Knee Pain After Surgery Can we predict which patients will have longer-term…