A 47-year-old Caucasian woman presented to the rheumatology clinic with a one-year history of pain and swelling involving the wrists, hands, ankles and feet that progressively worsened. Her symptoms included generalized fatigue, morning stiffness in the hands and lower back lasting more than an hour, Raynaud’s phenomena (triphasic), photosensitivity, tightening of the skin of the…
SAN FRANCISCO—The risk of stroke after herpes zoster (HZ) infection is elevated in the period immediately after infection in patients with autoimmune diseases, according to a study presented at the 2015 ACR/ARHP Annual Meeting.1 The findings were presented in a scientific session, called Discover 2015, that highlighted new research. In another study from the session,…
SAN FRANCISCO—To date, evidence on the efficacy of blocking the cytokine tumor necrosis factor (TNF) and its receptors in autoimmune diseases has resulted in the approval by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) of five anti-TNF agents. Less well known, according to Richard Siegel, MD, PhD, chief, Immunoregulation Section, Autoimmunity Branch, and Clinical Director, NIAMS,…
The results of a new study examined the human osteoclast-associated receptor may aid in the development of therapeutic matrikines to control aberrant osteoclastogenesis in some autoimmune diseases…
Recent research has helped further define genetic heritability for pediatric autoimmune diseases. In an interview, Dr. Hakon Hakanarson discusses how understanding common genetic factors can help develop risk prediction and treatments for such diseases as juvenile idiopathic arthritis, lupus and celiac disease…
SAN FRANCISCO—Two hundred years ago, physicians knew nothing about what caused various forms of arthritis. Today, we have more clues about what may trigger rheumatic diseases, but still can’t pinpoint the culprits that set scores of inflammatory conditions in motion. Researchers discussed some of the background and recent findings that point to what immunologists call…
NEW YORK (Reuters Health)—Patients with vitiligo commonly have other autoimmune diseases, according to a cross-sectional study. “Vitiligo is a systemic disease with multiple comorbidities,” Dr. Iltefat Hamzavi from Henry Ford Hospital in Detroit, Mich., told Reuters Health by email. “The number of patients with neurologic diseases and inflammatory disease was much higher than we anticipated.”…
Temporal arteritis was first described by Sir Jonathan Hutchinson in 1890 in an elderly retired gentleman’s servant who developed red, painful streaks on his temples and was found to have bilaterally swollen temporal arteries with feeble pulses.1 Sir Hutchinson disputed the suggestion that the red streaks were caused by the man’s hat and, instead, called…
NEW YORK (Reuters Health)—Immunotherapy appears to yield neurological improvements in some patients with autoimmune cerebellar ataxia, especially those with nonparaneoplastic disorders, researchers report. “I was surprised that so many patients responded to immunotherapy (steroids, intravenous immunoglobulin (IVIg), and plasma exchange) and remained ambulatory,” Dr. Andrew McKeon from Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minn., told Reuters Health…
Researchers determined IL-26 serves as a potent antimicrobial that promotes the immune sensing of both bacterial and host cell death…