Vasculitis and Giant Cell Arteritis News

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.

Oncologists should be encouraged to promptly consult with rheumatologists in the event of suspected immune-related adverse events due to checkpoint inhibitor therapy, according to a series of “points to consider” published by EULAR in the Annals of the Rheumatic Diseases.

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.

This episode explores the history of cryoglobulinemic vasculitis, from the first person who froze a tube of blood and noticed something strange happened, to the discovery of hepatitis C. We also throw in how the lab test for cryoglobulins is performed and some of the data we have on therapy.

Cigarette smoking was associated with ANCA-associated vasculitis, particularly myeloperoxidase ANCA-positive vasculitis, according to data published in JAMA Internal Medicine.

In Part 2, I sit down with nephrologist Ali Mehdi, MD, and neurologist Ghulam Abbas Kharal, MD, MPH, to discuss their different specialty perspectives on working up patients with suspected cryoglobulinemic vasculitis.

Try your hand at this medical mystery, which is followed by some didactics on a fascinating disease which will hopefully make sense of this inscrutable title.

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.

Learning Objectives:

A review of 75 adalimumab clinical trials in adult and pediatric patients demonstrated low rates of inflammatory bowel disease adverse events, according to data published in Arthritis Care & Research.