Scleroderma News

A multidisciplinary approach is key to optimizing outcomes in systemic sclerosis, given the broad range of manifestations and organ systems that may be involved, according to a presenter at the 2020 Congress of Clinical Rheumatology-West.

Although systemic sclerosis treatments have often been stymied in clinical development, a trio of “interesting future therapies” may offer new options, according to a presenter at the 2020 Congress of Clinical Rheumatology-East.

Mortality due to systemic sclerosis remains high compared with mortality in the general population, despite a steady decline in mortality rates from 2001 through 2015, according to data published in Arthritis Care & Research.

The risk for hospital-diagnosed COVID-19 among patients with autoimmune or immune-mediated disease may depend on age, specific disease and prior therapy, according to data published in the Annals of the Rheumatic Diseases.

Patients with systemic sclerosis who are hospitalized for serious infection have, from 1998 to 2016, experienced a growing number of charges but decreasing lengths of stay and mortality, researchers reported in Arthritis Research & Therapy.

Patients with rheumatic diseases plus COVID-19 are more likely to require mechanical ventilation, but demonstrated similar clinical features and hospitalization rates as those with COVID-19 only, according to data published in the Annals of the Rheumatic Diseases.

Lenabasum, an experimental cannabinoid receptor type 2 agonist, was associated with inhibition of interleukin-1beta and interleukin-18 activation, according to data presented at the EULAR 2020 E-Congress.

Lifestyle approaches, including physical activity and smoking cessation, should complement medical therapy in patients with rheumatic and musculoskeletal diseases, according to data presented at the EULAR 2020 E-Congress.

The COVID-19 pandemic, in places like Detroit, with a large working-class population, can highlight the gap between the rich and the poor. It can demonstrate how political unrest can impact the response to a critical situation. Moreover, it can show how health care workers can face both personal and professional challenges in managing an outbreak of this magnitude.

Although rheumatologists are more attuned to the skin symptoms associated with systemic sclerosis, there should be a “heightened awareness” of gastrointestinal involvement, which is highly prevalent among this patient population and can precede skin manifestations, according to data presented at the virtual ACR State-of-the-Art Clinical Symposium.