Lupus News

SAN DIEGO — At the American College of Rheumatology Annual Meeting, Niti Goel, MD, discussed a post hoc analysis evaluating the utility of the QuantiFERON-Tuberculosis GOLD test (QFT) and repeat testing for indeterminate results in the screening of patients in a systematic lupus erythematosus clinical trial. According to Goel, repeat indeterminate QFT results for tuberculosis were infrequent.

SAN DIEGO — At the American College of Rheumatology Annual Meeting, Joan Merrill, MD, spoke about a study that she said is further demonstration that atacicept should continue being developed as a potential treatment for lupus. According to Merrill, the results also suggest that measurements of low-disease activity may represent not just clinically meaningful endpoints, but may also “work as endpoints in clinical trials to discriminate drug from placebo.”

SAN DIEGO — The European League Against Rheumatism and the American College of Rheumatology have presented a draft of their new classification criteria for systemic lupus erythematosus, which researchers said provides greater specificity and sensitivity, and will more accurately identify patients for clinical trials.

According to findings, systemic lupus erythematosus appears to increase atherosclerotic risk in its early phase, while traditional risk factors have a greater impact on atherosclerosis during the later stages of SLE. and 138 healthy controls who were enrolled in the Toronto Risk Factor Study. The Toronto Risk Factor Study began in 1998 and enrolled 250 women with SLE and 250 age-matched, healthy female controls from a family practice clinic. The present study analyzed the initial cohort 15 years later for the incidence of atherosclerotic cardiovascular (CV) events. The following were classified as CV events: angina pectoris; myocardial infarction (MI; fatal or nonfatal); transient ischemic attack (TIA); and stroke (fatal and nonfatal).

SAN DIEGO — Patients with systemic lupus erythematosus in the most severe category of damage states as assessed by the Systemic Lupus International Collaborating Clinics/ACR damage index, or SDI, sustain direct costs that are approximately four times higher and total costs that are nearly twofold higher than patients with the lowest baseline SDIs, according to findings presented at the American College of Rheumatology Annual Meeting.

SAN DIEGO — Among women with systemic lupus erythematosus, obesity appears to be independently linked to worse patient-reported outcomes, suggesting that weight loss may improve outcomes for this population, according to findings presented at the American College of Rheumatology Annual Meeting.

SAN DIEGO — Among patients with systemic lupus erythematosus, dietary consumption of omega-3 appears to be associated with improvement in some patient-reported outcomes, according to findings reported at the American College of Rheumatology Annual Meeting.

SAN DIEGO — At the American College of Rheumatology Annual Meeting, Amit Saxena, MD, spoke about a study that determined long-term pacing, lower fetal ventricular heart rate, fetal extranodal cardiac disease and higher fetal severity score were associated with cardiac dysfunction in children with neonatal lupus.

SAN DIEGO — Young patients with systemic lupus erythematosus and co-existing psychiatric conditions appear to have greater health care utilization in ambulatory settings in the year after SLE diagnosis. In addition, findings presented at the American College of Rheumatology Annual Meeting linked diagnosis with a new psychiatric condition in this time with greater use of acute care.

SAN DIEGO —  Low levels of vitamin D were associated with elevated rates of end-stage renal disease among patients with systemic lupus erythematosus, according to findings presented at the American College of Rheumatology Annual Meeting.