Sjögren’s Syndrome News

Intense dust cloud inhalation, as well as PTSD, experienced by first responders and community members present at the Sept. 11 terrorist attack in New York are associated with a significant increased risk for systemic autoimmune disease, including rheumatoid arthritis and lupus, according to findings published in Arthritis & Rheumatology.

When journalist Ben Hammersley coined the word “podcast” in 2004, he was attempting to put a name to the phenomenon resulting from the timely convergence of widely available MP3 player technology, inexpensive audio software and weblog culture — a renaissance of radio programs that could be downloaded and played at the listener’s convenience, anytime or anywhere.

Rheumatologists treating patients with systemic Sjögren’s syndrome should tailor their therapies to organ-specific severity, with immunosuppressants only being used as a glucocorticoid-sparing agent, with no evidence supporting one agent over another, according to EULAR recommendations published in the Annals of the Rheumatic Diseases.

ATLANTA — Among mothers with anti-Ro antibodies who had previously delivered a baby with congenital heart block, hydroxychloroquine was associated with a 50% in risk of that complication in subsequent pregnancies, according to a speaker at ACR/ARP 2019.

Among systemic rheumatic diseases, the risk for opportunistic infection is highest among patients with polymyositis or dermatomyositis, followed by systemic lupus erythematosus, systemic sclerosis, rheumatoid arthritis and primary Sjögren’s syndrome, according to data published in Arthritis Research & Therapy.

Rheumatology patients treated with interleukin inhibitors have an increased risk for serious infections, opportunistic infections and cancer, according to data published in JAMA Open Network.

Secondary Sjögren’s syndrome affects approximately one-quarter of all patients with systemic lupus erythematosus, and the frequency increases with age, according to data published in the Journal of Rheumatology.

In June 2019, attendees who made the trek to the EULAR’s Annual Congress in Madrid to hear an update on possible treatments for Sjögren’s syndrome were hit with some bad news: Bristol-Myers Squibb’s abatacept, widely considered the frontrunner for an actual treatment for the disease, failed its phase 3 trial.

By the time Lilly Stairs was diagnosed with psoriatic arthritis at the age of 19 — following an arduous series of tests and doctor visits — she had already been living with an autoimmune disease for 12 years.

Sjögren’s syndrome, sarcoidosis and systemic immunoglobulin light chain amyloidosis all share common features when analyzed through salivary gland ultrasound, according to findings published in Arthritis Care & Research.