Lupus & Connective Tissue Diseases
Conference Coverage
Draft ACR Takayasu’s guidelines: Surgery is the last resort
ATLANTA – One of the goals in soon-to-be-published Takayasu’s arteritis guidelines from the American College of...
Conference Coverage
Methotrexate gives durable remission from idiopathic granulomatous mastitis
ATLANTA – A study presented at the ACR annual meeting and previous work from others builds a case for methotrexate.
Conference Coverage
Nearly 25% of U.S. adults take an obesogenic prescription drug
The 2013-2016 analysis also showed a strong link between obesogenic drug use and increasing obesity severity.
Conference Coverage
Hydroxychloroquine prevents congenital heart block recurrence in anti-Ro pregnancies
ATLANTA – Women taking the drug experienced more than a 50% drop in the rate of congenital heart block in comparison to the historical rate.
From the Journals
ACR and EULAR release first classification criteria for IgG4-related disease
In two validation cohorts, the criteria had specificities of 97.8%-99.2% and sensitivities of 82.0%-85.5%.
Conference Coverage
VEDOSS study describes predictors of progression to systemic sclerosis
ATLANTA – When Raynaud’s phenomenon is present, risk for progression is best predicted by the presence of puffy fingers, disease-specific...
Conference Coverage
Repeat LTBI testing best in patients taking biologics with new risk factors
ATLANTA – Just 1.2% of patients taking biologics with negative tuberculosis test results converted to positive results in annual tuberculosis...
Conference Coverage
TULIP trials show clinical benefit of anifrolumab for SLE
ATLANTA – Anifrolumab was well tolerated and provided clinical benefit for moderate-to-severe SLE in the global, phase 3 TULIP-1 and -2 trials.
From the Journals
Glucocorticoids linked to damage accrual in SLE regardless of disease activity
“These findings suggest that unnecessary use of glucocorticoids should be avoided in the management of the disease where possible,” study authors...
Commentary
Have earlier diagnosis and treatment advances cut deaths from systemic sclerosis?
Treatment advances for interstitial lung disease and pulmonary hypertension, as well as earlier detection, may have helped to reduce mortality,...
Conference Coverage
Fewer people are dying from systemic sclerosis at younger ages
ATLANTA – Mortality of people with systemic sclerosis in the United States aged 44 and younger now rivals the death rate for the general...