Anti-Rheumatic Rx

Plenary sessions began the day, followed by thousands on the abstract floor. Here are a few of my favorite presentations from day 2 at ACR 2024.

With the advent of FDA-approved anti-obesity medications such as semaglutide and tirzepatide, a new avenue for managing this challenging patient population has emerged. But how might these drugs impact the trajectory of RA, and are we on the cusp of a paradigm shift?

For decades, glucocorticoids (GCs) have formed the backbone of polymyalgia rheumatica (PMR) management. Whilst previously there was a sense that a “low” GC dose with limited duration was used, we now appreciate just how heterogenous the disease course of PMR can be, with many patients experiencing frequent relapses and garnering a subsequent huge GC burden over a number of years.

ACR Convergence 2024 opened today with a full slate of presentations, posters and specialty meetings.  The meeting began with a flip: the plenary sessions started at 9AM and the poster session began at 1030 AM. Below are some of the highlights from day one in Washington, DC.

The RheumNow faculty have parked at the plenaries, trafficked the posters and have been finding the best the meeting offers on the first day at ACR 2024 in Washington, DC.  Here are some of the best abstracts from Saturday Nov. 16th. You can also spot these on Twitter by looking for the (#ACRbest) hashtag. 

Studies show that patients with difficult-to-manage axSpA have a higher disease activity; however, the lack of a consensus definition led researchers and clinicians to utilize their own proposed definition, resulting in variability of the characteristics of non-responders.

Managing health conditions is rapidly evolving as patients increasingly turn to online resources for answers—over 65% search for health-related questions online. Our study analyzed Google search trends for rheumatic disease topics, offering a fascinating glimpse into how online search behavior can reveal patient needs and experiences. This approach, known as "infodemiology," tracks real-time Google Trends data to understand symptom- and

ACR24 Begins today. Many of the great presentations for this meeting come from industry sponsored clinical trials and reports.  Often these become the pivotal studies for regulatory approval and the annual congresses are their first look.

A recent study by Sparks et al reveals evolving trends in DMARD usage for rheumatoid arthritis over two decades in the United States. This retrospective analysis evaluated 407,728 DMARD initiation episodes among 229,365 unique patients from 2001 to 2021.

ACR 2024 starts tomorrow. Here are a few previews of abstracts to be presented, along with my recommendations of sessions you don’t want to miss.

An exhaustive, full read guideline from the British Association of Dermatologists (BAD) and the British Society for Rheumatology (BSR) on the management and treatment of Behçet’s disease (BD) in 2024 has been published in Rheumatology.