Polymyositis News

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.

Just 32.1% of reproductive-age women with rheumatic diseases use any kind of prescription contraception, while at the same time more than 70% use at least one fetotoxic medication, according to findings published in Arthritis Care & Research.

Physicians and rheumatologists can use a two-factor interferon score and family history to predict a patient’s progression from being antinuclear-antibody positive to developing autoimmune connective tissue diseases, such as systemic lupus erythematosus or Sjögren’s syndrome, according to findings published in the Annals of the Rheumatic Diseases.

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.

Although rare, patients with idiopathic inflammatory myopathies are at an increased risk for both ischemic and hemorrhagic stroke, according to findings published in Arthritis Care & Research.

Prior statin use was strongly associated with histologically confirmed idiopathic inflammatory myositis, according to research recently published in JAMA Internal Medicine.

The FDA has granted orphan drug designation to lenabasum for the treatment of dermatomyositis, a systemic autoimmune condition characterized by skin and muscle involvement, according to a press release from Corbus Pharmaceuticals.

Among rheumatologists, nephrologists and neurologists who issued more than 10 prescriptions for corticotropin in 2015, 88% received payments from its manufacturer — with more than 20% receiving more than $10,000 — despite the drug’s considerable cost and the dearth of evidence in support of its use, according to findings published in JAMA Network Open.

AMSTERDAM — Not only is exercise therapy safe in patients with myositis, but rheumatologists should instruct their patients to begin supervised resistance training and physical activity as soon as 4 weeks following the start of treatment, according to findings presented at the EULAR Annual Congress.