Sjögren’s Syndrome News

A newly formed organization, the COVID-19 Global Rheumatology Alliance, has launched an international registry to collect data on patients with rheumatic diseases who may or may not have contracted the infection that is causing the global pandemic. The aim is to aid clinicians and researchers in real time as the situation evolves.

The situation with COVID-19, or the currently circulating coronavirus, is developing so rapidly that new information may likely be available by the time you reach the end of this paragraph. But along with factual information, misinformation also abounds on social media, on cable news channels and in print publications. Healio Rheumatology will attempt to set the record straight for health care providers looking to sort out fact from fiction.

Aldeyra Therapeutics will prioritize its ocular disease programs while placing on hold clinical development in other fields as part of a strategic prioritization program, according to a press release.

The United Rheumatology Spring National Meeting will offer attendees lectures on cutting edge topics such as genomics and transcriptomics in addition to a range of continuing medical education activities. But the real appeal of United Rheumatology, and of the meeting, will be the guidance that can be provided to independent rheumatologists regarding practice management strategies and interacting with payers.

Approximately 35% of relevant industry payments to U.S.-based authors of American College of Rheumatology clinical practice guidelines remain undisclosed, according to findings published in Arthritis & Rheumatology.

The rheumatology community lost clinician and educator Calvin R. Brown, MD, on Dec. 1, 2019. He was 66 years old. His final years were spent at the Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine, practicing rheumatology and training fellows in the specialty.

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.