Antiphospholipid Syndrome News

The very idea of social distancing runs contrary to congregation and celebration, two things that lie at the core of New Orleans culture. It is for this reason, perhaps, that New Orleanians were initially resistant to quarantine measures to contain COVID-19. But as the death toll climbed and Mayor LaToya Cantrell canceled St. Patrick’s Day festivities, the city slowly awakened to the idea that this was serious business.

A newly formed organization, the COVID-19 Global Rheumatology Alliance, has launched an international registry to collect data on patients with rheumatic diseases who may or may not have contracted the infection that is causing the global pandemic. The aim is to aid clinicians and researchers in real time as the situation evolves.

Neither elective nor medically indicated abortions resulted in worse outcomes among patients with autoimmune rheumatic diseases, according to data published in Arthritis & Rheumatology.

The situation with COVID-19, or the currently circulating coronavirus, is developing so rapidly that new information may likely be available by the time you reach the end of this paragraph. But along with factual information, misinformation also abounds on social media, on cable news channels and in print publications. Healio Rheumatology will attempt to set the record straight for health care providers looking to sort out fact from fiction.

The United Rheumatology Spring National Meeting will offer attendees lectures on cutting edge topics such as genomics and transcriptomics in addition to a range of continuing medical education activities. But the real appeal of United Rheumatology, and of the meeting, will be the guidance that can be provided to independent rheumatologists regarding practice management strategies and interacting with payers.

Approximately 35% of relevant industry payments to U.S.-based authors of American College of Rheumatology clinical practice guidelines remain undisclosed, according to findings published in Arthritis & Rheumatology.

Data from the NIH indicate that antiphospholipid syndrome is linked to one-third of new strokes occurring in individuals younger than 50 years, and may be responsible for up to 1% of all thromboses. Despite recent estimates that this condition affects as many as 1 in 2,000 individuals in the United States, its exact prevalence remains unknown.

Clinicians who treat vasculitides are accustomed to uncertainty. Vasculitis, in its many forms, presents a laundry list of challenges, often leaving rheumatologists frustrated, if not stumped, at some point during diagnosis and management. But the challenges are not limited to vasculitis itself. An entire cross-section of conditions — from antiphospholipid syndrome to HIV to hematologic malignancies — can mimic vasculitis, prompting frequent misdiagnoses and potentially fatal treatment decisions.

The rheumatology community lost clinician and educator Calvin R. Brown, MD, on Dec. 1, 2019. He was 66 years old. His final years were spent at the Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine, practicing rheumatology and training fellows in the specialty.

When journalist Ben Hammersley coined the word “podcast” in 2004, he was attempting to put a name to the phenomenon resulting from the timely convergence of widely available MP3 player technology, inexpensive audio software and weblog culture — a renaissance of radio programs that could be downloaded and played at the listener’s convenience, anytime or anywhere.