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What's Your Diagnosis? Truncal Rash, Arthritis and +ANA
An 80 year old woman complains of 3 months of rash on her back. It is modestly pruritic. The lesions are both annular and papular appearing over her back, torso and upper arms. She also complains of pain and swelling in her fingers.
Read ArticleTacrolimus Tops Other DMARDs as Induction Therapy for Lupus Nephritis
Metanalysis of nine clinical trials and 972 lupus patients examined the comparative efficacy of tacrolimus, mycophenolate (MMF) and cyclophosphamide (CYC) as induction therapy for lupus nephritis.
Read ArticleDSB: Drug Shortages July 2015
Several drugs continue to be in short supply, posing significant problems for patients. Foremost on this list is leflunomide (Arava) which is backordered for both 10 mg and 20 mg tablets.
Leflunomide Shortage
Read ArticleRituximab Induced Serum Sickness
Karmacharya and colleages have reviewed 33 cases of rituximab-induced serum sickness. Half of these patients had the classic triad of SS fever, rash, and arthralgia and a self-limiting course. The time to onset after infusion was greater with the first dose of rituximab c
Read ArticleIL-1 Inhibition May Be an Alternative Treatment for Behcet's
Behcet's disease is difficult to manage, especially if the goal is to avoid corticosteroids.
Read ArticlePost-Translationally Modified Proteins as Potential New Early Arthritis Activity Markers
Defects in protein citrullination and its consequences in patients with RA have been studied widely in the recent decade. It appears that autoantibodies, including those against citrullinated proteins, are of diagnostic and prognostic relevance.
Read ArticleTroponin and BNP in the Diagnosis of Pulmonary Hypertension
Common cardiac biomarkers could be used to identify patients with systemic sclerosis (SSc) at risk for developing pulmonary hypertension, French researchers reported.
Read ArticleLimited Counseling for Increased Sodium Intake in the U.S.
Increased sodium intake has been shown to increase Th17 cell activity, and in animal models high-salt diets have been shown to drive IL-23-dependent TH17 cells to cause experimental allergic encephalomyelitis (citation source (http://url.ie/z238). I
Read ArticleMicroscopic Polyangiitis Associated with Pulmonary Fibrosis
Fresolimumab (anti-TGF beta) Improves Systemic Sclerosis
Transforming growth factor (TGF-β) is known to have potent profibrotic activity and has been implicated in the pathogenesis of systemic sclerosis a futile condition with no effective disease modifying treatments.
Read ArticleManagement of Digital Ulcers in Scleroderma
Currently there are no FDA-approved medications for the treatment of digital ulcerations in the United States. Digital ulcers are a common, unfortunate and difficult to manage consequence of the vascular obliteration and fibrosis that accompanies systemic sclerosis.
Read ArticleAdherence to Lupus Meds Linked to Increased Acute Hospitalizations
Using Medicaid data from 2000-2006, 9,600 hydroxychloroquine new users were compared to 3,829 new users of immunosuppressive agents (IS) in patients with SLE. They assessed adherence using the MPR - the medication possession ratio.
Read ArticleInflammatory Ocular Disease in US Veterans
A retrospective review of 1285 US male veterans showed the prevalence of inflammatory eye disease to be 2%. Uveitis was most common (most being anterior uveitis), followed by keratitis, scleritis, episcleritis, and acute ischemic optic neuropathy.
Read ArticleHigh Lupus Flare and Complication Rates in Lupus Pregnancy
An incident cohort study from Denmark showed that 84 SLE pregnancies resulted in 62 live births. Lupus disease activity strongly influenced maternal complications seen in half and fetal complications were observed in one-third of cases.
Read ArticleThe EULAR 2015 Report – Friday and Saturday
These abstracts and presentations were presented last week on the 12th and 13th of June at the EULAR 2015 annual meeting in Rome.
Read ArticleVaricella Zoster Virus Commonly Found in Giant Cell Artery Biopsies
Varicella-zoster virus infection was studied in temporal artery biopsies from those suspected of having giant cell arteritis.
Read ArticleThe EULAR 2015 Report- Friday
These abstracts and presentations were presented 12 June at the EULAR 2015 annual meeting.
Read ArticleThe EULAR 2015 Report - Wednesday
EULAR 2015 started the afternoon of Wednesday June 10th.
Read ArticleDoes Cirrhosis Increase the Risk of Autoimmune Disorders?
A Danish nationwide healthcare registry was used to identify newly diagnosed alcoholic cirrhosis patients between 1977 and 2010. A matched cohort analysis compared each patient with five random individuals from the population.
Read ArticleDifficulties Diagnosing Interstitial Lung Disease in Scleroderma
The diagnosis of chronic lung disease in patients with systemic sclerosis may be difficult because of atypical symptoms, variable evolution and limitations of current classification criteria for a definite diagnosis. Nevertheless, diagnosis is necessary as patients with SSc-ILD have a p
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