Rheumatic Disease

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.

Moderate to high glucocorticoid use, defined as 10 mg per day or more, is associated with a greater risk for hospitalization for COVID-19 among patients with rheumatic disease, according to data published in Annals of the Rheumatic Diseases.

Patients with rheumatic diseases plus COVID-19 are more likely to require mechanical ventilation, but demonstrated similar clinical features and hospitalization rates as those with COVID-19 only, according to data published in the Annals of the Rheumatic Diseases.

These are unparalleled times indeed. We believe over the next number of weeks and months, the events unfolding now will represent a defining time for our profession and our society. As we write this in March 2020, we are approaching the maelstrom of the epidemic and bracing for events that cannot be predicted with great accuracy.

To a nonmedical professional, the placebo effect is a fairly straightforward concept: give someone a sugar pill, tell them it is medicine, they think they get better. But the reality of what the placebo effect has come to mean in the current health care setting is something entirely different, and more complicated.

Patients with inflammatory rheumatic disease receiving conventional DMARDs and a prime-boost vaccination strategy — a dose of pneumococcal conjugate vaccine and a dose of 23-valent polysaccharide vaccine — saw improved immunogenicity, compared with single pneumococcal conjugate vaccination, according to data published in Arthritis Research & Therapy.

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.

SCOTTSDALE, Ariz. — Characteristic microbiome imbalances in patients with lupus could potentially act as both the cause and effect of high lupus disease activity, according to Gregg Silverman, MD, of the New York University School of Medicine.

The American College of Rheumatology has issued a strong recommendation that women with rheumatic disease who do not have lupus or antiphospholipid syndrome use effective contraceptives, along with 130 other recommendations in its first clinical practice guideline for reproductive health.

Low-dose methotrexate — the most commonly used drug for systemic rheumatic diseases — was associated with small to moderate increased risks for skin cancer along with gastrointestinal, infectious, pulmonary and hematologic adverse events, according to a study published in the Annals of Internal Medicine.