Sjögren’s Syndrome News

Novel therapeutic approaches and a robust drug pipeline may provide hope for patients with Sjögren’s syndrome, according to a presenter at the 2021 Congress of Clinical Rheumatology-East.

Approximately 27% of patients with a rheumatic disease experienced a change in employment status during the early months of the COVID-19 pandemic, according to survey results published in The Lancet Rheumatology.

This past spring, two studies shed light on how some of the largest clinician organizations and publishers in rheumatology, including the American College of Rheumatology and EULAR, have failed to provide adequate training materials or clear guidelines when it comes to caring for patients of color.

Although the seroprevalence of SARS-CoV-2 in patients with immune-mediated inflammatory diseases is comparable to the general population, increased systemic inflammation among these patients is linked to symptomatic COVID-19, according to researchers.

There is no association between a child’s ethnicity and the risk for neonatal lupus erythematosus, nor for any specific disease symptoms, according to data published in The Journal of Rheumatology.

Maternal ankylosing spondylitis is associated with a 2.02-times higher likelihood of Kawasaki disease in the offspring, according to a research letter published in JAMA Network Open.

The ability to identify the features of Sjögren’s syndrome, and to seek payer approval for specific manifestations of the disease, is of paramount importance for the rheumatologist, according to a presenter at the 2021 Interdisciplinary Autoimmune Summit.

Rituximab was associated with more severe COVID-19 in patients with inflammatory rheumatic and musculoskeletal diseases, according to data published in The Lancet Rheumatology.

The incidence of scleritis declined by about a third in the United Kingdom between 1997 and 2018, according to data published in Arthritis & Rheumatology.

Patients with inflammatory rheumatic disease, but especially those with autoimmune conditions, as well as those treated with rituximab, may be at greater risk for severe COVID-19 pneumonia than the general population, according to data.