We know that cardiovascular disease (CVD) is the leading cause of death in RA and that traditional risk factors do not fully account for increased risk. It is also recognised that RA patients have fewer warning symptoms prior to major event and also have a higher case fatality rates for stroke and cardiac events. 

From Dr. Michelle Petri’s lecture on Antiphospholipid Syndrome Updates at ACR17 Review Course on Saturday, I learned that there is now a new class of diseases called the complementopathies.  This was the first time I heard of this term; how many patients did I misdiagnose who really had this and what are the ICD10 codes?!

Professor Rosenbaum is well known for his expertise in rheumatic eye disease and he gave a great summary of how to approach your patient having a red eye.The differential diagnosis for the red eye includes conjunctivitis, keratitis, acute anterior uveitis, episcleritis, scleritis and acute closed angle glaucoma.

Prof Robert Inman gave a great summary of the state of the art in reactive arthritis (ReA).

With the increasing use of biologic therapies to treat rheumatic disease has come an awareness of a small but real risk of developing de novo autoimmune disease. 

Poster 318 presented at the ACR on Sunday morning caught attention of many, highlighting updates in phase 3 active controlled study of romosozumab vs alendronate in patients with postmenopausal osteoporosis with high risk of fracture.

The ACR Review Course was superb once again from top to bottom, from Blue Fingers to Practical Treatment of RA. Every year I wonder if I should skip it, but each year I go. And I have never regretted it. Here are my take-home messages and “pearls” from the ACR Review Course.

Responding to criticisms that the 10 year maintenance of certification exam is expensive, time-consuming, and not reflective of clinical practice, the American Board of Internal Medicine recently issued changes to their requirements, allowing more options for physicians to recertify.

Bristol-Myers Squibb Company confirmed that 34 abstracts related to ORENCIA® (abatacept) and the Company’s immunoscience pipeline will be presented at the 2017 American College of Rheumatology and Association of Rheumatology Health Professionals Annual Meeting, November 3-8, 2017, in San Diego.

Novartis has announce it will present its long-term 4-year data in ankylosing spondylitis (AS) and 24-weeks data in psoriatic arthritis (PsA) to be presented at the 2017 ACR/ARHP Annual Meeting Structural disease progression is a major concern for AS and PsA patients as it may prompt mobility loss - new data to provide further evidence on the efficacy of Cosentyx to reduce structural disease progression.