“We believe that these guidelines provide knowledge to the broad community of rheumatologists who do not always have time to follow new developments in the published literature,” she observed. In turn, it is hoped that the recommendations will help rheumatologists to manage their patients with SSc better, based on currently available evidence.
The draft recommendations are close to being finalized and undergoing expert review by the EUSTAR task force before publication hopefully later this year, Dr. Kowal-Bielecka said.
The project is funded by a research grant of EULAR to the EUSTAR SSc recommendation group. Dr. Kowal-Bielecka is a member of speaker bureaus for AbbVie, Actelion, Pfizer, and Roche.
*Correction, 8/6/2015: An earlier version of this article misstated the recommendation given for glucocorticoid use in scleroderma renal crisis.