Sjögren’s Syndrome News

Patients with systemic autoimmune rheumatic diseases who contract COVID-19 may have a higher risk for end-organ failure than those without such diseases, according to a speaker at ACR Convergence 2020.

Patients with systemic lupus erythematosus, especially those who are positive for anti-Sm antibodies, are at greater risk for adverse events associated with trimethoprim-sulfamethoxazole, according to data presented at the ACR Convergence 2020 virtual meeting.

It is essential that rheumatologists aim for “low” or “quiescent” disease activity several months before conception in their patients who desire to become pregnant, according to a presenter at the 2020 Congress of Clinical Rheumatology-East.

The risk for hospital-diagnosed COVID-19 among patients with autoimmune or immune-mediated disease may depend on age, specific disease and prior therapy, according to data published in the Annals of the Rheumatic Diseases.

Women aged 18 to 45 years with rheumatic diseases want rheumatologists to play an active role in their sexual and reproductive health, according to findings from a series of interviews published in Arthritis Care & Research.

The COVID-19 pandemic, in places like Detroit, with a large working-class population, can highlight the gap between the rich and the poor. It can demonstrate how political unrest can impact the response to a critical situation. Moreover, it can show how health care workers can face both personal and professional challenges in managing an outbreak of this magnitude.

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.