Scleroderma News

Patients with Raynaud’s phenomenon related to systemic sclerosis identify with distinct patterns of the disease that may be linked to progression of systemic sclerosis’ obliterative microangiopathy, according to findings published in Arthritis Care & Research.

Patients with systemic sclerosis that overlaps with systemic lupus erythematous are generally younger at the time of diagnosis, more frequently demonstrate pulmonary arterial hypertension and less often have cutaneous sclerosis symptoms, according to recent findings in the Journal of Rheumatology.

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.

Healio Rheumatology is proud to announce the launch of Rheuminations, a podcast series hosted by Adam Brown, MD, focusing on medical mysteries and other ripping yarns of the immune system gone awry.

The risk for autoimmune disease among teenage girls does not increase after they receive the quadrivalent HPV vaccine, according to findings published in the Canadian Medical Association Journal.

DESTIN, Fla. — Although the incidence of rheumatologic adverse effects associated with immune checkpoint inhibitors is expected to grow with their increased use, these effects remain poorly studied in random clinical trials, according to findings presented at the 2018 Congress of Clinical Rheumatology.