ACR Journals On Air

Benjamin Franklin once said: "An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure " . This week, we have the opportunity to see this realized in a recent clinical study entitled , Vitamin D and Marine n-3 Fatty Acids for Autoimmune Disease Prevention: Outcomes Two Years After Completion of a Double-Blind, Placebo-Controlled Trial . Our guest is the study's first author, Dr. Karen Costenbader . She exp...

Cari ng for our patients means reducing symptoms and occurrences of flare-ups. However, caring for their whole self means a wat chful eye on how chronic disease symptoms impact their daily life and mental health. Discovering patterns between depression and anxiety and such chronic diseases , like ankylosing spondylitis , psoriatic arthritis and rheumatoid arthritis , was the focus of Dr. Alyssa Ho...

When disease strikes, time becomes a critical resource our patients cannot afford to waste. For those with axial spondyloarthritis (axSpA), an inordinate amount of time often goes by before a proper diagnosis is made, resulting in delays for crucial tre atments to be rendered . The reasons for this delay in diagnosis, particularly among those with axSpA are diverse, complicated and not well-unders...

Systemic Sclerosis ( SSc ) is a painful and debilitating disease that our patients suffer from. However , a newly published study has concluded that there are some self-management interventions patients can engage with that have shown to improve fatigue, particularly for those newly diagnosed with SSc . Today, we review the procedures, interventions , results and conclusions of this study , titled...

As the need and demand for quality care increases, time in clinic needs to become more efficient. Working smarter, not harder, is a daily challenge for all in our field. W ith mobile technology streamlining so much and i mprovements in patient reported outcome (PRO) collection among patients with rheumatoid arthritis (RA) needed, it had Dr. Daniel Solomon asking "...is there an app for that? ". To...

Recent research indicates that those who suffer from AxSpA may have some hope in protecting against events of Uveitis! Dr. Katie Bechman, first author Incidence of Uveitis in Patients With Axial Spondylarthritis Treated With Biologics or Targeted Synthetics: A Systematic Review and Network Meta-Analysis, explains her team's research findings and how they came to this exciting conclusion!  

" If I have seen further, it is because I stand on the shoulders of giants" Sir Isaac Newton famously stated in a letter to polymath scientist, Robert Hooke back in 1675 . Today, Dr. Mary Crow, MD, aides Arthritis & Rheumatology launch a series on immunology , for rheumatologists. She is the co-author of the article Standing on Shoulders: Interferon Research, from Viral Interference to Lupus Patho...

Is there an increased risk of cancer once a patient has Scleroderma? If so, what is the risk and how does one go about showing this? Dr. Ami A Shah , Director of the Division of Rheumatology at Johns Hopkins sits down with us to explain those answers. We go over the methods, results and conclusions of the recent study Distinct Scleroderma Autoantibody Profiles Stratify Patients for Cancer Risk at...

Welcome back to "Journals"! Our topic of discussion today comes from the manuscript Anti-Gephyrin Antibodies: A Novel Specificity in Patients With Systemic Sclerosis and Lower Bowel Dysfunction and our guest today is the study's first author, Dr. Zsuzsanna McMahan. The study recognizes that the enteric nervous system (ENS) regulates the gastrointestinal (GI) function , which is commonly impaired i...

Dr. Tobit Steinmetz is our guest this week, author of the manuscript recently published in "Arthritis and Rheumatology" titled: "Association of Circulating Antibody-Secreting Cell Maturity with Disease Features in Primary Sjogren's Syndrome." Dr. Steinmetz and his team endeavored to better understand the hyperactivity observed among B cells, which play a major role in Primary Sjogren's Syndrome (S...

After a major event, it's important to take stock of the causes of such an event, but just as important, on the reactions to it. No other event has challenged humanity in recent memory like COVID-19. Today we discuss the pandemic in re lationship to its impact on those who suffer with rheumatic disease and examine the global response. Our guest is Dr. Evelyn Hsieh, MD, PhD, the first author of the...

Sometimes, we learn more from what isn't achieved than when we achieve an expected result. Such is the case for our next guest, Dr. David R. Jayne, who is the first author of Clinical and Biomarker Responses to BI 655064, an Antagonistic Anti-CD40 Antibody, in Patients With Active Lupus Nephritis: A Randomized, Double-Blind, Placebo-Controlled, Phase II Trial , a study designed to characterize a d...

Knowing that glucocorticoids significantly increase the risk of fractures and is the most common cause of secondary osteoporosis, the use of the steroid has always been viewed as a doubled edged sword and "Bad for the Bones ". This week, we welcome Dr. Giovanni Adami, first author of Bone Loss in Inflammatory Rheumatic Musculoskeletal Disease Patients Treated with Low-Dose Glucocorticoids and Prev...

The pandemic has changed much in our world—from the way we work, to the way we shop, and even the way we learn. Rheumatology wasn't immune from such changes and when medical institutions needed to adjust their practices to accommodate a changing world around them, the process by which fellowship interviews were conducted needed to change as well. Thus, a shift to the video communication platform Z...

Our next guest, Dr. Paul Monach, reviews " Complement ", focusing on its application in the clinical setting. In his work , Dr. Monach presents a typical case with a broad differential diagnosis, then provides a n overview of the complement system along with clinical diseases with com plement-driven mechanisms. Dr. Shanmugam reviews this manuscript published in Ar t hritis & Rheumatology plus an a...

End-stage renal disease is a dangerous reality for those who suffer from Lupus Nephritis (LN) , despite improvements in immunosuppressive therapy in the last 20 years . Our next guest, Dr. Brad H Rovin, MD, FACP, FASN, is the first author of the manuscript " Kidney-Related Outcomes and Steroid-Sparing Effects in Patients with Active Lupus Nephritis Treated with Obinutuzumab: A Post Hoc Analysis of...

This week on 'Journals', we turn our attention to a rare but challenging and heart-breaking complication of rheumatic disease, Congenital Heart Block. Sir Deryck and Lady Va Maughan Professor of Rheumatology and Director of the Division of Rheumatology at New York University School of Medicine, Dr. Jill Buyon joins us today to present her latest research " Prospective Evaluation of Anti-SSA/Ro Pre...

This week on 'Journals ', we'll look at not just one, but two studies that endeavored to define knee osteoarthritis (OA) through magnetic resonance imaging (MR I) imagery. The manuscripts we'll be discussing are :   Development of a Magnetic Resonance Imaging–Based Definition of Knee Osteoarthritis: Data From the Multicenter Osteoarthritis Study     Diagnostic accuracy of candidate MRI knee osteoa...

This week we welcome our next guest, Dr. John D. Pauling to 'Journals '. Dr. Pauling is the senior author of the manuscript "Assessment of the Systemic Sclerosis-Associated Raynaud's Phenomenon Questionnaire: Item Bank and Short Form Development" , which endeavored to " develop, refine and score a novel patient-reported outcome instrument to assess the severity and impact of Raynaud's Phenomenon (...

Assessing disease activity in large vessel vasculitis can be a challenge. And as imaging techniques evolve, clinicians must evaluate how to harness new imaging modalities in clinical care. I n an attempt to predict the progression of large vessel vasculitis (LVV), our next guest, Dr. Kaitlin Quinn, used the vascular activity seen on a f luorodeoxyglucose-positron emission tomography (FDG-PET) scan...

This week our guest is Dr. Joyce Chang, MD, MSCE, a recipient of the Lupus Foundation of America's "Mary Betty Stevens Young Investigator Award", who shares her latest study, its methods, conclusions and career journey with us! Dr. Chang's latest study " Improving Outcomes of Pediatric Lupus Care Delivery With Provider Goal-Setting Activities and Multidisciplinary Care Models " used the pediatric...

Patients with Rheumatoid Arthritis (RA) need rehabilitation to improve functional limitat ions and slow disability . But in what doses? Using the FORWARD databank, our next guest Dr. Kaleb Michaud , PhD, identif ied a cohort and gathered data on rehabilitation dose and their functi onal outcomes. His study's objective (titled : " Examining Rehabilitation Dose in Adults With Rheumatoid Arthritis: A...

Photosensitivity among patients with SLE is a well-known sym ptom. However, what is not well-known is why. Our guest this week, Dr. J. Michelle Kahlenberg MD, PhD and team, endeavored to uncover that answer. The article, " Regulation of Photosensitivity by the Hippo Pathway in Lupus Skin " was the result of this study, which was published in "Arthritis & Rheuma tology" earlier this yea r. Dr. Kahl...

It has only been three years since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic and we're only just now beginning to investigate the impact it has had on our collective societies. The full impact will likely not be known for years to come, if ever. As those studies are beginning, our next guests wanted to evaluate the pandemic's impact in their spheres of interest . First author, Dr. Kristie Kuhn, MD, PhD a...

This week, we take a look at the practical management of pain and the advancement of s cience regarding it, with our guest Dr. Dan Clauw. Co-a uthor of the paper: " Identifying and Managing Nociplastic Pain in Individuals With Rheumatic Diseases: A Narrative Review ", Dr. Clauw joins us today to discuss the work to introduce the three types of pain classified by "The International Associat ion for...