Imaging News

CHICAGO — Vascular ultrasound, when performed by experienced sonographers, demonstrated high sensitivity and specificity for the diagnosis of large-vessel giant cell arteritis, according to data presented here.

CHICAGO — Genetic risk score has a high discriminatory capacity, performs at least as well as MRI — while being far less expensive — and could be of clinical use in the early diagnosis of ankylosing spondylitis, according to data presented at the ACR/ARHP 2018 Annual Meeting.

Rheumatologists are raising the alarm regarding a change buried within CMS’ proposed 2019 Medicare Physician Fee Schedule, which they say would significantly reduce reimbursements for the complete diagnostic musculoskeletal ultrasound by as much as 90% by 2029.

The 2018 Rheumatic Disease Report Card: Raising the Grade on Rheumatology Care in America released today by the American College of Rheumatology demonstrates that access to affordable rheumatology care varied considerably from state to state, with most states averaging a “C” grade.

We begin with a 24-year-old previously healthy female presenting with gradual worsening — over the last few months — migraine-like headaches accompanied by nausea but no vomiting. She was in a usual state of health when she started getting headaches, that were described as intermittent with a deep ache sensation. The headaches were unilateral and would switch from left to right and sometimes occur between the eyes. The patient described the severity as 8 out of 10. The headaches did not wake her from sleep, and she was unsure of what triggered them. She denied hearing loss, tinnitus, numbness or tingling of extremities, weakness, joint pain, joint swelling or rashes. She reported no new medications.

FORT WORTH, Texas — Although salivary gland ultrasonography is not a reliable diagnostic predictor of Sjögren’s syndrome in all cases, it is more predictive among advanced or severe cases of the disease, according to a poster presentation at the Rheumatology Nurses Society Annual Conference.

Drug-naive patients newly diagnosed with systemic lupus erythematosus are likely to demonstrate silent cardiac impairments, even before any symptoms of chest discomfort arise, according to findings published in Arthritis & Rheumatology.

Johns Hopkins Hospital has been recognized by U.S. News & World Report’s Best Hospitals Survey as the top-ranked hospital in the country for rheumatology for the 2018 to 2019 year.

MRI interrater reliability is superior to that of radiographs — which demonstrated a significant proportion of both false negative and false positive findings — for global sacroiliitis impression among juvenile patients, according to findings published in Arthritis Research & Therapy.

Healio Rheumatology is proud to announce the launch of Rheuminations, a podcast series hosted by Adam Brown, MD, focusing on medical mysteries and other ripping yarns of the immune system gone awry.