The pathogenesis between microscopic gut inflammation leading to the development of Crohn’s disease and sacroiliitis has been poorly understood. Dr. Debusschere, et al sought to understand this important link between IBD and axial SpA. The group looked at the in situ expression of gut biopsy derived TNF, TNFR1 and TNFR2 from known SpA patients.

Rheumatoid Arthritis and SLE can be quite challenging to manage in clinical practice, but our arsenal of medications to tone down inflammation is becoming quite broad.

There are two things I learned in rheumatology fellowship.Never burn any bridges because everyone in rheumatology knows each otherRheumatologists like their food

Check out this compilation of our ACR Day 1 videocasts merged into one 59 minute podcast !https://soundcloud.com/rheumnow/rheumnow-acr-2017-san-diego-day-1You can follow RheumNow podcasts on Soundhound.com and iTunes.

Curtis and colleagues presented a plenary session that analyzed the duration of drug holidays and the risk of subsequent fractures (FX) in women starting bisphosphonates (BP). They looked at 156,236 women taking BP for 3 years (median 2.1 yrs.) and then discontinuing BP.  20% stopped BP for > 6 mos. and 12.7% restarted BP and 11% died. For those off BP for >2 yrs. there was a 40% increased risk of Hip Fx.