Articles By Cassandra Calabrese, DO
Infections Rheums Should Worry About
With the increasing development and use of new biologics and oral targeted therapies to treat RA and other immune mediated inflammatory diseases, an awareness of infection risk and prevention has become of increasing interest as well. While our patients may be susceptible to many different types of infections depending on immunosuppressive regimen, age and co-morbidities, I’ll highlight a few of the “usual suspects”.
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Checkpoint Inhibitor-related Myositis – Something Different
As expected, this year’s ACR meeting saw an upswing in the number of abstracts on immune related adverse events from checkpoint inhibitor therapy compared to last year.
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The Consequences and Cure of Hepatitis C
I spent this past week seeing hepatitis C patients with our hepatologists, and being a rheumatologist, I was looking forward to seeing extra-hepatic manifestations of HCV that we read about in text-books - cryoglobulinemic vasculitis, sicca syndrome, porphyria cutanea tarda and many others. I suppose I should not be surprised that the week passed without seeing a single one of these.
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Prevention of HBV Infection: How Are We Doing?
In 2016 the WHO set out to eliminate HBV infection as a public health threat by 2030. So far, we are far from this goal as vaccine implementation has been suboptimal in a number of important patient populations, including patients with rheumatologic diseases, as well as other immunocompromising diseases like HIV.
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Q Fever - The Intersection of Rheum and ID
Today in clinic, I saw a patient with longstanding seropositive, erosive rheumatoid arthritis who had been treated with etanercept for over 10 years. She had undergone valve replacement years ago for regurgitation.
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Why Rheumatologists Should Do Better Vaccinating this Flu Season
It is well known that influenza infection is more common in patients with rheumatologic diseases. Blumentals et al.
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CDC: Pneumococcal Vaccination in Adults
Streptococcus pneumonia is a leading cause of morbidity and mortality in adults; including patients with autoimmune diseases who are at particular risk.
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Lymphopenia and Steroids Increase the Risk of Pneumocystis Jiroveci in Systemic Rheumatic Diseases
It is well-known that patients with systemic autoimmune diseases are at risk for Pneumocystis jirovecii pneumonia (PJP) and although infrequent, it carries a high mortality. A new study shows lymphopenia and steroid use increases the risk of PJP.
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Suspending Methotrexate for Influenza Vaccination
Vaccinating our rheumatoid arthritis patients against influenza every year is a safety priorty. However immunosuppressive therapies pose a challenge to vaccine administration as their use can hamper vaccine immunogenicity.
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Venous Thromboembolism Risk Factors in ANCA-Associated Vasculitis
A retrospective analysis of four European vasculitis trials analyzes the risk venous thromboembolism (VTE) with ANCA-associated vasculitis and shows that CRP, cutaneous and GI involvement and baseline creatinine were most associated with VTE risk.
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