SAN DIEGO—Will rheumatologists soon be able to use data from genetics and genome-wide association studies to more accurately predict disease and develop new therapies for rheumatic diseases? At a Nov. 5 session at the 2017 ACR/ARHP Annual Meeting, experts shared their views on how to glean this useful knowledge from genomics studies. The cost to develop…
SAN DIEGO—Treatment strategies for systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE) have changed a great deal over the years, but progress has been slow and inadequate. According to a 2011 survey, many patients with lupus still report that they have a low quality of life due to their health problems.1 Rheumatologists face the challenge to develop more successful…
SAN DIEGO—To manage patients with systemic lupus erythematous (SLE), rheumatologists must be aware of potentially serious complications affecting many organ systems. On Nov. 7 at the 2017 ACR/ARHP Annual Meeting, two experts offered insights on cardiovascular and hematological complications of lupus. Myocardial Disease in Lupus Lupus patients are at increased risk for heart-related complications, especially…
SAN DIEGO—The Next Accreditation System, the newest process for evaluating medical residency and fellowship programs and their participants, including future rheumatologists, was implemented in 2014 by the Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education (ACGME). The system introduced specialty-specific milestones designed to reflect significant points in professional development. Milestones are defined by ACGME as a rubric…
SAN DIEGO—In a presentation on what rheumatology nurses should know in their daily practice about disease-modifying anti-rheumatic drugs (DMARDs) at the 2017 ACR/ARHP Annual Meeting Nov. 3–8, Jessica Farrell, PharmD, highlighted the importance of educating and counseling patients about the range of treatments and applications for rheumatologic conditions. Dr. Farrell, a clinical pharmacist at the…
SAN DIEGO—At two sports medicine talks at the 2017 ACR/ARHP 2017 Annual Meeting last November, two rheumatologists discussed shoulder impingement and low back pain. First, Andrew Concoff, MD, a rheumatology and sports medicine specialist at St. Jude Medical Center in Fullerton, Calif., gave these five shoulder impingement tips: Physical exams may not be very useful…
SAN DIEGO—At the 2017 ACR/ARHP Annual Meeting this past November, an expert said researchers are making progress in identifying drugs that can correct problems with transcriptional programming, which, if perfected, could go a long way toward harnessing more fully the power of genetics knowledge and directing it toward patient care. The session also delved into…
SAN DIEGO—New insights into how scleroderma and myositis may be linked with cancer have led to intriguing questions that could impact patient care, experts said at the 2017 ACR/ARHP Annual Meeting in November. Understanding the relationship between cancer and rheumatic diseases is important because rheumatologists are seeing more and more patients with both diseases, and…
SAN DIEGO—Since the identification of the autoinflammatory disease, familial Mediterranean fever (FMF), researchers have identified an alphabet soup of other autoinflammatory diseases with genetic underpinnings, from PAPA (pyogenic arthritis with pyoderma gangrenosum and acne) to NIAID (NLRP1-associated autoinflammation with arthritis and dyskeratosis) to TRAPS (TNF receptor-associated periodic syndrome). The torrent of discoveries, brought about largely…
SAN DIEGO—Treatments do exist that can improve the prospects of a patient with the rare disease amyloidosis, but only if clinicians keep the disease in mind and treat the patient before it’s too late, an expert said at the 2017 ACR/ARHP Annual Meeting this past November. He also discussed research that may be close to…