The first day of EULAR 2026 in London featured the opening ceremonies, a plenary session, posters nd the first round of major oral presentations to an audience of nearly 15,000 attendees. Here are a few of my favorites from the first day.

Clinicians often come across the scenario of a patient with well-controlled spondyloarthritis where the ASDAS in the low disease activity range, CRP normalised, joints clinically quiet. However, the patient returns to the clinic still reporting significant pain. Their rheumatologist adjusts the biological, waits, returns. The pain persists.

Over 70% of patients with PsA struggle with excess weight, amplifying synovio-entheseal inflammation and blunting biologic response. The rapid uptake of GLP-1RAs in rheumatology has raised an urgent mechanistic question: are clinical gains in PsA driven purely by weight reduction, or do these agents carry intrinsic anti-inflammatory properties? EULAR 2026 offered six abstracts that together illuminate, without fully resolving, this question.