Sjögren's Syndrome

ATLANTA – A discussion with patients about their current dietary habits and nutritional supplementation can help the optometrist customize a dry eye treatment plan, according to a speaker here at SECO.

It is almost the end of January when you are reading this, but I wrote it at the end of a Thanksgiving weekend when I had a bit too much time on my hands. Although to be honest, it is always nice to be a little bit ahead of the deadline divas at Ocular Surgery News, especially around the holidays. So without any further ado, I offer to you one dry eye doc’s New Year’s resolutions for 2020, the year of eye care.

Leonardo da Vinci said it well: “The eye, which is called the window of the soul, is the chief means whereby the understanding may most fully and abundantly appreciate the infinite works of nature.”

Intense dust cloud inhalation, as well as PTSD, experienced by first responders and community members present at the Sept. 11 terrorist attack in New York are associated with a significant increased risk for systemic autoimmune disease, including rheumatoid arthritis and lupus, according to findings published in Arthritis & Rheumatology.

ORLANDO, Fla. – Clinicians should consider rosacea in patients with meibomian gland dysfunction, according to a speaker here at the American Academy of Optometry meeting.

ATLANTA — Among mothers with anti-Ro antibodies who had previously delivered a baby with congenital heart block, hydroxychloroquine was associated with a 50% in risk of that complication in subsequent pregnancies, according to a speaker at ACR/ARP 2019.

Secondary Sjögren’s syndrome affects approximately one-quarter of all patients with systemic lupus erythematosus, and the frequency increases with age, according to data published in the Journal of Rheumatology.

SAN DIEGO — Increasing use of checkpoint inhibitors in cancer therapy is leading to an uptick in immune-related adverse events for rheumatologists to manage, according to a presentation at the Congress of Clinical Rheumatology West.

Research published over the last decade strongly reinforces the idea that dry eye specialists should be aggressively looking for – and subsequently managing – nocturnal evaporative stress in the dry eye and meibomian gland dysfunction patient populations.

Sjögren’s syndrome, sarcoidosis and systemic immunoglobulin light chain amyloidosis all share common features when analyzed through salivary gland ultrasound, according to findings published in Arthritis Care & Research.