Findings support the continued use of TNF inhibitor monotherapy in individuals with immune-mediated inflammatory diseases. In the study, these patients had a lower risk of hospitalization or death caused by COVID-19 than patients on other commonly prescribed treatment regimens
Two new ACR Clinical Practice Guidelines provide recommendations on the pharmacologic management of JIA, focusing on treatment of oligoarthritis, temporomandibular arthritis & systemic JIA, as well as nonpharmacologic therapies, medication monitoring, immunizations & imaging.
Sarcoidosis is a multisystem disease characterized by noncaseating granulomas in affected tissues, mostly involving the lungs and lymph nodes.1,2 The etiology of sarcoidosis remains unknown but is thought to be due to an inflammatory response to an antigen exposure in genetically predisposed individuals.1 Tumor necrosis factor-α (TNF‑α), a pro-inflammatory cytokine, plays an essential role in…
A 44-year-old woman presented to the emergency department with bifrontal headaches that had started approximately one month earlier. She was diagnosed with migraines and discharged home. Three days later, the patient returned to the emergency department upon recurrence of her headaches, and this time she also reported abnormal leg movements. A computerized tomography (CT) scan…
At the 17th Annual Advances in the Diagnosis and Treatment of the Rheumatic Diseases meeting, Ana-Maria Orbai, MD, MHS, discussed lessons learned from the cases of several patients with psoriatic arthritis.
Retroperitoneal fibrosis (RPF) is a rare condition characterized by aberrant fibroinflammatory tissue developing in the retroperitoneum. This disorder was initially called Ormond’s disease. RPF may be idiopathic or secondary to other conditions. Idiopathic RPF is a part of the disease spectrum of chronic periaortitis due to its typical periaortoiliac localization. Idiopathic retroperitoneal fibrosis is a…
Polyarteritis nodosa (PAN) is a systemic necrotizing vasculitis that typically affects medium-sized muscular arteries. The clinical subsets of PAN are idiopathic, generalized, secondary hepatitis B virus (HBV) associated and cutaneous PAN. These clinical subsets are important because of their therapeutic implications. Virtually any organ system can be affected in generalized PAN, but this vasculitis tends…
Immune checkpoint inhibitors (ICIs), such as anti-programmed cell-death 1/programmed death-ligand 1 (anti-PD-1/PD-L1) or anti-CTL-associated protein (anti-CTLA-4), have dramatically changed the treatment of advanced cancers over the past decade. ICIs block T cell inhibition, thus increasing the anti-tumor immune response. ICIs are used not only for metastatic cancer, but also as adjuvant treatment for some stage…
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…
Patients who have undergone a kidney transplant and have high levels of serum uric acid symptomatic gout may benefit from treatment with pegloticase, according to a recent study.