Sjögren’s Syndrome News

An overlapping case of Sjögren’s syndrome can lower the likelihood of achieving remission or low disease activity among patients with rheumatoid arthritis, according to data published in Arthritis Research & Therapy.

Patients with connective tissue disease who maintain their rheumatic therapy do not have an increased risk for COVID-19, according to a group of physicians in Italy who presented findings in an editorial published in the Journal of Rheumatology.

The very idea of social distancing runs contrary to congregation and celebration, two things that lie at the core of New Orleans culture. It is for this reason, perhaps, that New Orleanians were initially resistant to quarantine measures to contain COVID-19. But as the death toll climbed and Mayor LaToya Cantrell canceled St. Patrick’s Day festivities, the city slowly awakened to the idea that this was serious business.

Shortages of hydroxychloroquine, sparked by its still unproven potential as a COVID-19 treatment, may soon force rheumatologists to make difficult decisions regarding which of their patients receive the drug, and at what dosage, according to a study published in The Journal of Rheumatology.

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.