Althought EULAR currently recommends the pneumococcal vaccine be given to patients with inflammatory rheumatic diseases and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) recommends the vaccine in patients treated with immunosuppressive drugs, a recent brief report suggests it be

A recent report from the Mayo Clinic describes a 49 year-old patient with lupus nephritis who presented with new-onset hypertension, edema, arthritis, serositis and leukocytoclastic vasculitis, and who later developed glomerulonephritis and nephrotic syndrome.

Widening experience with JAK inhibition for rheumatoid arthritis (RA) and tapering medications among RA patients in remission, along with the success of secukinumab for psoriatic arthritis (PsA), were the most important advances in rheumatology in 2015, according to specialists responding toMedPa

Previously, granulomatous polyangitis (GPA or Wegener's) was known to have an increase risk of cancer, especially bladder cancer, presumeably due to cyclophosphamide (CTX) exposure.

The following is a compilation of abstracts presented at the 2015 Annual ACR meeting in San Francisco. These were chosen on the basis of impact, quality and safety message.

Giant cell arteritis (GCA) is a medium and large vasculitis, wherein only glucocorticoids (GC) treatment has been the mainstay of therapy. As many will require prolonged treatment, the hazards of GC are well known, lead to substantial toxicity and morbidity.

Cacoub et al review the common entity cryoglobulinemic vasculitis (CryoVas) in the current issue of the American Journal of Medicine.

This small-vessel vasculitis involves the skin, joints, and potentially other organs, including the peripheral nervous system or the kidneys.

To assess the prevalence and magnitude of healthcare costs associated with granulomatosis with polyangiitis (GPA) and microscopic polyangiitis (MPA) in the USA, researchers analyzed adminstrative data from Truven Health MarketScan Commercial and Medicare Supplemental databases.

A team of Japanese investigators examine 126 patients with ANCA-associated renal vasculitis to see if ANCA levels would predict disease relapse.

14-3-3η (eta) is a new test that may be useful in diagnosing patients with early rheumatoid arthritis. The test is 77% sensitive and 93% specific for RA and developers have found that antibodies against 14-3-3η may correlate with drug responsiveness.

Varicella-zoster virus infection was studied in temporal artery biopsies from those suspected of having giant cell arteritis.