A matched cohort study shows that HLA-B*58:01 and HLA-A*34:02 are strongly associated with allopurinol-induced severe cutaneous adverse reactions (SCARs), these alleles were absent in more than one-third of those affected, suggesting these are strong but incomplete indicators of SCAR risk. 

Written by Lisa Sammaritano, MD, of the Hospital for Special Surgery in New York City, and a committee of nearly 50 other experts, the new guideline also stipulates that corticosteroids are OK for gaining symptom control in newly diagnosed patients and when flares erupt, but the duration should be kept as short as possible.

The multimillion dollar question for inflammatory arthritis prescriptions is: which drug should I use next?

CAR T cell therapy took the centre stage in 2022 where data pertaining to a successful case series of 5 patients with refractory SLE were published by Prof Schett’s group. Since then, this area of therapeutic has expanded exponentially. Our growing enthusiasm was slightly dampened though when the FDA required all six approved CAR T-cell therapies in oncology to include a black box warning regarding the risk of second primary malignancies in January 2024. At ACR25, Prof Schett’s group described a new form of toxicity in patients with autoimmune disease receiving CAR T-cell therapy, most likely due to the cleansing of immune cells from the affected organs.

Drs. Jack Cush & Arthur Kavanaugh, two of rheumatology’s most trusted voices, provide a breakdown of the latest breakthroughs and hottest topics in rheumatology from the 2025 ACR Convergence meeting in Chicago.

Here's the last installment of our "ACR Best" abstracts as chosen by the RheumNow faculty.  Most of these were from the final, day 4, but a few were noteworthy holdovers from day 3. Enjoy!

Dr. Jack Cush recaps ACR2025 with suggestions on how to best learn ACR25 content from RheumNow.com and our articles, videos and podcasts.