Articles By Aurelie Najm, MD, PhD
Seeing more or seeing too much? Ultrasound vs MRI in preclinical RA
Imaging in the preclinical phase of RA is moving fast—arguably faster than our ability to interpret what we are actually seeing.
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Hot topic: menopause and inflammatory arthritis outcomes in RA and PsA
Across EULAR 2026 abstracts this year and presented in a session called “this is a woman’s world”, strong signals are emerging that the menopausal transition is associated with changes in disease phenotype, disease activity, and treatment response in both RA and PsA.
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Immune Dimming or Immune Reset in RA: How Far Should We Go?
CD19-directed CAR T-cell therapy has rapidly moved into autoimmune disease, driven in large part by striking reports in SLE, where sustained drug-free remission has raised the possibility of a true immune reset. In RA, where multiple effective therapeutic classes already exist, the relevance of such deep immune interventions remains uncertain.
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New biomarkers in RA: Who to treat, Who to watch, Who to taper?
Here is my summary of what EULAR 2026 is presenting to us in the field of biomarker-driven personalized care in RA.
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Three Abstracts That May Shape the Future of RA Treatment
Our therapeutic armamentarium in RA keeps on growing. New studies and new molecules, new mechanisms of action or new ways of using old drugs are presented every year at conferences. But which are the ones who can have an impact on our practice? Here is my selection of 3 abstracts presented at EULAR 2026 that identify therapeutic strategies that are well worth keeping on our radar.
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Diet as a DMARD? The Evidence Is Still Hard to Swallow
Dietary interventions are rarely taken as seriously as pharmacological therapies in rheumatology. Yet patients ask about them constantly, and an increasing number of studies suggest that nutrition may influence disease outcomes. Two randomized controlled trials presented at EULAR 2026 add to this growing literature in PsA and RA. However, before we start prescribing Mediterranean diets, the data deserve a closer look.
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IL-23 Blockade Goes Oral
A new player is entering the IL-23 arena — and it’s a tablet! Icotrokinra (ICO), a first-in-class peptide that binds and blocks the interleukin-23 receptor (IL-23R), is showing encouraging efficacy and safety across a range of psoriasis (PSO) and psoriatic disease (PsD) studies.
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If We Can’t Prevent RA, Can We at Least Prevent Difficult-to-Treat RA?
Two new studies presented this year tackle a key question: can our initial treatment choices influence who ends up in the difficult-to-treat category?
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New pieces added to the Pre-RA puzzle
We know that pre-RA is a definition that stands under a large umbrella, ranging from asymptomatic individuals with ACPA positivity to individuals with symptomatic pre-clinical synovitis. How can we predict the transition from the at-risk state to clinical RA outside the realm of clinical, conventional serological (RF/anti-CCP) or imaging (US/MRI synovitis) biomarkers?
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PAH diagnosis and management in the context of CTD ILD
Pulmonary arterial hypertension (PAH) is a serious complication of connective tissue disorders. Approximately 25% of patients with PAH have an underlying CTD, making CTD-PAH the second most common cause of PAH. During the session on Management of Lung Complications in CTD at APLAR 2025, Prof. Dinesh Khanna and Masataka Kuwana provided an excellent overview of PAH diagnosis and management strategies the context of CTD-ILD.
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