Polymyositis News

Although the risk for severe COVID-19 outcomes in patients with rheumatic and musculoskeletal disease has lowered, it is nonetheless still significant, according to data published in The Lancet Rheumatology.

Patients with systemic autoimmune rheumatic diseases and COVID-19 may be at greater risk for hospitalization, ICU admission, acute renal failure and venous thromboembolism, according to data published in Arthritis & Rheumatology.

Treatment access issues and distress related to COVID-19 are highly associated with disease activity and flare among patients with rheumatic disease, according to data published in Arthritis Care & Research.

Myositis due to immune checkpoint therapy is rare yet severe, with more than half of patients developing overlapping myasthenia gravis and/or myocarditis, leading to extended hospitalizations and respiratory failure, researchers noted.

The mortality risk for a 35-year-old patient with a rare autoimmune rheumatic disease during the COVID-19 pandemic is similar to that of a 55-year-old in the general population, according to UK data published in Rheumatology.

Among patients using long-term glucocorticoids, denosumab is superior to alendronate in increasing bone mineral density in the spine after 1 year, according to a speaker at ACR Convergence 2020.

Patients with systemic autoimmune rheumatic diseases who contract COVID-19 may have a higher risk for end-organ failure than those without such diseases, according to a speaker at ACR Convergence 2020.

Patients with systemic lupus erythematosus, especially those who are positive for anti-Sm antibodies, are at greater risk for adverse events associated with trimethoprim-sulfamethoxazole, according to data presented at the ACR Convergence 2020 virtual meeting.

While a novel scoring system may aid in diagnosing myositis, the heterogeneity of this group of conditions presents ongoing challenges for clinicians, according to a presenter at the 2020 Congress of Clinical Rheumatology-East.

Patients with myositis typically present with telltale muscle inflammation. However, properly identifying the source of inflammation can be a challenging prospect for clinicians, especially when other diseases bear oddly similar features.