Anti-Rheumatic Rx

Day 4 was a half day closeout to the EULAR 2023 Congress. For me the big presentations were the late breaking abstracts, although there were other review and abstract sessions for those remaining.  Many people missed the last day (June 3rd) of the meeting as a pending Milan airport strike on June 4th dictated last-minute changes to travel and learning. Here are a few of my favorite abstracts from the Late Breaker Session.

Some subjects in rheumatology seem to create contention the more they get explored, and one of those areas is a traditional crowd favourite for discussion at EULAR - clinically suspect arthralgias. At EULAR 2023 in Milan, the perfect platform was provided for an airing of grievances, in a debate entitled ‘Clinically suspect arthralgias: fact or myth’.

Day 3 was a sunny warm day in Milan at the 2023 EULAR Congress meeting. Here are a few of my favorite abstracts from today.

Day 2 at the international EULAR Congress meeting is always bigger and busier. There were sessions on JIA therapies, crystal arthritis, novel drugs for SLE and Sjogren's, early RA and preclinical RA interventions, IgG4 disease, osteoporosis and the growth and application of artificial intelligence in medicine and rheumatology.

Interstitial lung disease (ILD) is a severe extra articular manifestation of RA, with limited treatment strategies and poor prognosis. While for a long time RA treatments, such as methotrexate (MTX), have been considered a risk factor, recent data have shown the innocuity of MTX on lung disease (and in fact suggests it could reduce risk of ILD by increasing disease control and remission).