Scleroderma News

In a disturbing repeat of last year’s run on hydroxychloroquine, U.S. health care systems are scrambling to maintain tocilizumab access for rheumatology patients following the drug’s emergency use authorization for COVID-19 and the surge in delta variant cases.

The NIH has launched a clinical trial to examine antibody responses to a COVID-19 vaccine booster dose in patients with autoimmune disease who failed to respond to the initial vaccine regimen.

Although immunosuppressives remain the cornerstone for managing underlying interstitial lung disease in connective tissue diseases, new drug approvals could help shift the treatment paradigm, according to data presented here.

Cancer screening recommendations for patients with autoimmune diseases largely rely on clinical experience and extrapolation in the absence of abundant data, according to a speaker at the 2021 Congress of Clinical Rheumatology-East meeting.

In this Healio Video Perspective from the AWIR Annual Conference, Janet Pope, MD, professor of medicine, epidemiology and biostatistics at Western Bone and Joint Institute in Ontario, Canada, shares three important points from her session on pulmonary arterial hypertension and interstitial lung disease in scleroderma.

Given the potential for false-positives in Scl-70 antibody testing for systemic sclerosis, many clinicians have overlooked the trio of classic signs and symptoms that would have otherwise “made the diagnosis,” according to a presenter here.

Following the recent approvals of nintedanib and tocilizumab for systemic sclerosis-related interstitial lung disease, providers should manage the disease based on severity, progression risk and extrapulmonary activity, noted researchers.

Higher circulating levels of the protein CTRP9 are associated with worse lung function in patients with systemic sclerosis-related interstitial lung disease, according to data published in Arthritis Care & Research.

There is a “large variability” in the use of physical therapy for systemic sclerosis, and patients who do receive it are rarely treated for hand or oral dysfunction, according to data published in Arthritis Care & Research.

This past spring, two studies shed light on how some of the largest clinician organizations and publishers in rheumatology, including the American College of Rheumatology and EULAR, have failed to provide adequate training materials or clear guidelines when it comes to caring for patients of color.