Articles By Bella Mehta, MBBS, MS
EULAR 2023 recommendation for imaging in large vessel vasculitis
Diagnosis of large vessel vasculitis can be challenging, and imaging modalities help with not only the diagnosis but sometimes in assessing flares in the disease. At EULAR 2023, recommendations for imaging modalities for large vessel vasculitis were discussed. These were evidence-based recommendations adapted for practicality in clinical use.
Read Article
Unmasking Lupus Pregnancy: Adherence and Drug Monitoring Dilemmas
Risk of poor pregnancy outcomes in lupus patients continues to remain high, especially in the setting of high disease activity. Preliminary data from a lupus pregnancy LEGACY cohort presented at EULAR 2023 raise concern.
Read Article
AOSD: Young vs. Elderly Onset
Adult onset still's disease (AOSD) is an autoinflammatory condition characterized by fevers, arthritis, and rash. It is considered an orphan disease because of its low prevalence - it is reported anywhere between 16 to 40 per ten million.
Read Article
SLE: Variability in Racial Disparities in Pregnancy Outcomes
Significant disparities exist in pregnancy outcomes in women with systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE), with previous cohorts identifying Black women as having a higher risk of maternal mortality compared to White women with SLE.
Read Article
Methotrexate + pegloticase increases response rates in gout
In abstract 0001 presented at ACR22 Convergence, researchers presented 12-month data from a randomized double-blind placebo-controlled trial of pegloticase with or without MTX.
Read Article
Do biologics help taper steroids in Adult Still’s Disease?
A Japanese large scale claims data study was able to collect 5-year data to study the treatment patterns in Still’s. In May 2019, intravenous tocilizumab was approved in Japan for Still’s disease. The study was designed to see patterns of steroid exposure before and after the approval of this therapy.
Read Article
AOSD: complicated disease or a disease with complications?
Many clinicians may not have seen a case of AOSD during training, which overall leads to several delays in referrals and appropriate diagnosis for AOSD patients. AOSD is an autoinflammatory disease where innate immunity plays a primary role and is characterized by seemingly unprovoked inflammation, but without the high-titer autoantibodies or antigen specific T cells seen in autoimmune diseases.
Read Article
More severe COVID-19 outcomes in African American, Hispanic individuals with SLE
A study from ACR21 convergence discussing data from the Global Rheumatology Alliance (GRA) describes the association between race/ethnicity on COVID-19 outcomes specifically in lupus patients.
Read Article
Telemedicine Enriched Care Model for Autoinflammatory Diseases
Traditionally telemedicine is thought to be a technology where a patient directly talks to a provider or a specialist; however, another concept of having a patient with a local primary care who in turn accesses specialists via video conferencing, is gaining some momentum.
Read Article
JAK Inhibitors in Refractory Adult and Childhood-Onset Still’s Disease
Still's disease is an autoinflammatory disease characterized by spiking fever, rash, polyarthralgia, sore throat and even life-threatening complications, such as macrophage activation syndrome. It was first described by George Still in the late 1800s.
Read Article