Scleroderma News

Faced with an increasing incidence and prevalence of autoimmune disease in the United States —approximately 23.5 million Americans are affected across the country, according to the NIH — Bonnie Feldman, MBA, DDS, says it is time to acknowledge what she calls “an invisible epidemic.”

More than 500 patient advocates met in Washington, D.C., this week in recognition of National Rare Disease Week, where they aim to educate and lobby members of Congress, as well as empower themselves to become better voices for those with conditions that seldom get the spotlight.

In two recent randomized clinical trials studying tocilizumab in patients with systemic sclerosis, a weekly regimen of 162 mg was more effective than placebo in preserving predicted forced vital capacity at 24 and 48 weeks, according to an expert at the annual Basic and Clinical Immunology for the Busy Clinician symposium, in Scottsdale, Arizona.

Splashy headlines in the mainstream media that proclaim advances in medicine are often not what they seem. That may be the case with a recent series of FDA approvals surrounding the direct-to-consumer genetic testing platform, 23andMe.

Specialty biotechnology company Gemelli Biotech has announced the launch of a blood test that measures anti-vinculin levels to help physicians identify the risk of gastrointestinal or vascular complications among patients with scleroderma and systemic sclerosis, according to a press release.

The burden of cardiovascular comorbidities is similar between rheumatoid arthritis and systemic sclerosis, despite dyslipidemia and diabetes mellitus being nearly half as prevalent in systemic sclerosis than in rheumatoid arthritis, according to data published in Arthritis Care & Research.

Among patients with interstitial lung disease related to systemic sclerosis, diminished forced vital capacity and a decline in the diffusing capacity for carbon monoxide through 2 years is a better predictor of mortality than the same data at baseline, according to findings published in the Annals of the Rheumatic Diseases.

CHICAGO — Patients with sclerosis assigned to a fibroproliferative subset, who are typically unresponsive to immunosuppressive drugs such as abatacept or mycophenolate mofetil, benefited from hematopoietic stem cell transplantation, according to Michael Whitfield, PhD, of the Geisel School of Medicine at Dartmouth.

CHICAGO — A long-term follow-up to the Scleroderma: Cyclophosphamide or Transplantation trial demonstrated that the clinical benefits of myeloablative autologous hematopoietic stem cell transplantation were durable 6 to 11 years following initial randomization, according to Keith Sullivan, MD, of Duke University Medical Center.

The use of wearable devices that track movement is effective in significantly increasing the amount of and time spent performing moderate to vigorous physical activity, with high short-term adherence, among patients with rheumatic and musculoskeletal diseases, according to findings published in Arthritis Care & Research.