The ACR 2021 meeting has concluded. Dr. Jack Cush recounts a few more great abstracts from this past week’s virtual meeting.

At #ACR21, the plenary session included an analysis of deaths from SLE throughout the US comparing 1999 to 2019 (Abstract #0454).

Macrophage activation syndrome (MAS) is a term commonly used by rheumatologists to describe a potentially life-threatening complication of systemic inflammatory disorders, most commonly occurring in people with systemic juvenile idiopathic arthritis (sJIA) and systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE). Time is the essence in the management of this condition as its associated mortality is very high.

Identifying patients that will develop RA in situations of seropositivity without overt clinical arthritis or identifying patients with undifferentiated oligo/polyarthritis that will develop RA remains a challenge in the field of rheumatology. 

A study presented today by Mease et al. addresses the vital gap between what patients and physicians consider disabling because of PsA, and emphasizes “what matters” in a daily clinical encounter while dealing with PsA.