The umbrella term crystalline disease covers arthritic conditions caused by deposition of crystals and associated inflammatory response, including erythema, edema and intense pain. The two most common crystal-induced arthropathies are gout, an arthritis secondary to inflammation caused by the presence of monosodium urate (MSU) crystals formed through high levels of serum urate, and calcium pyrophosphate…
My fellow was laughing at me. By itself, I don’t think this was an unusual occurrence. I am quite certain that my fellows laugh at me all the time. That said, when such laughter is called for, I am accustomed to a certain protocol being observed. In general, I expect the laughter to be contained,…
Patient with autoimmune disease may experience medical emergencies. Here is an overview of recognition and management of three emergent situations for patients with scleroderma: critical digital ischemia, scleroderma renal crisis and intestinal pseudo-obstruction…
Suggestions on how to assess risk and manage bone issues in chronic kidney disease patients are offered…
(Reuters Health)—Patients hospitalized for a hip fracture are less likely to experience a subsequent fracture-related hospitalization if they start anti-osteoporosis medication sooner, a Taiwanese study suggests.1 Researchers examined data on 77,930 patients aged 50 years and older hospitalized for hip fractures, including 9,986 people prescribed anti-osteoporosis medications within one year of the index fracture. Compared…
Rheumatologists should not be falsely reassured by a normal mean blood pressure in lupus patients, according to a study from Johns Hopkins University that found age-related blood pressure patterns in systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE) differ from the general population and that increased diastolic blood pressure variability (BPV) is highly associated with cardiovascular events in SLE.1…
Research into the disease-modifying effects of the novel cathepsin K inhibitor MIV-711 suggests it may be effective as a knee OA treatment. In OA patients using the treatment, the study documented statistically significant reductions in bone and cartilage progression…
A 59-year-old woman presented to our rheumatology clinic with a six-month history of a symmetric polyarthritis. She initially experienced pain in both knees. As time progressed, she began to notice pain in her ankles, hips, shoulders, hands and feet. She experienced joint stiffness lasting for more than 30 minutes every morning. She also described worsening…
ATLANTA—Macrophage activation syndrome (MAS), a subset of hemophagocytic lymphohistiocytosis (HLH) disease, can be a fatal result of rheumatic disease. But there’s good news: New therapeutic options for refractory MAS targeting individual cytokines are emerging. At the 2019 ACR/ARP Annual Meeting, possible therapeutic options were presented during a pediatric-focused clinical and translational research track, Therapeutic Approaches…
ATLANTA—Osteoporosis in premenopausal women is uncommon compared with its frequency in post-menopausal women, but when it is suspected, it poses some difficult questions for clinicians: How should it be diagnosed in this understudied population? If found, should it be treated—and how? Elizabeth Shane, MD, professor of medicine at Columbia University and attending physician at New…