The HCPLive Rheumatology condition center page is a comprehensive resource for clinical news and insights on rheumatologic disease. This page consists of interviews, articles, podcasts, and videos on the research, treatment and development of therapies for arthritis, gout, nr-AxSpA, and more.
May 14th 2024
Data presented at NKF Spring Clinical Meeting suggest events including myocardial infarction and stroke are more prevalent among patients with lupus in North America.
RA Task Force Recommendations and the Management of Comorbidities
May 25th 2010(AUDIO) How RA comorbidities might be addressed differently in light of new international task force recommendations is the subject of this discussion from Stephen A. Paget, MD, Chairman of the Division of Rheumatology at the Hospital for Special Surgery in New York.
Depression and Pessimism Can Affect Recovery from Orthopedic Injuries
May 20th 2010Psychological factors such as pessimism about recovery and depression may be major predictors of chronic pain in trauma patients, according to results of a study by Australian researchers published in The Journal of Pain.
Val Jones Q&A on Fee-for-Service Medicine
May 17th 2010Val Jones, MD, founder and creator of the blog Better Health, and physician with DocTalker Family Medicine, a pay-as-you-go, time-based practice, discusses what it's like to be a physician in an unconventional practice. Jones, like many physicians at DocTalker, was a patient before asking to come aboard as a member.
New Form of Resistance training Could Help Those with Arthritis
May 17th 2010Researchers at the University of Texas Medical Branch at Galveston have found that restricting the flow of blood through the muscles moderately and temporarily in combination with low-level resistance exercise training can encourage muscle-mass increases in older men.
RA Task Force Recommendations and the Use of Biologic Agents
May 12th 2010(AUDIO) Treatment targets have helped improve outcomes in other areas of medicine. Now an international task force has developed recommendations for RA. In a series of four podcasts, Stephen A. Paget, MD, Chairman of the Division of Rheumatology at the Hospital for Special Surgery in New York and a Journal of Musculoskeletal Medicine editorial board member, will discuss the key points and implications regarding the use of biologic agents, managing RA comorbidities, future RA treatment, and health care reform. Part 1 focuses on the use of biologic agents.
NKT Deficiency Associated with Autoimmune Disorders
May 10th 2010A new control mechanism in the immune system has been discovered by researchers at the Swedish Medical University Karolinska Institutet. The mechanism may be useful in the treatment of diseases, such as multiple sclerosis, rheumatoid arthritis and synaptic lupus erythematosus.
NHIN Direct: It Can't Happen Too Soon
May 5th 2010It looks like NHIN Direct will provide a move toward a secure, Internet-based program to allow exchange of data in a more secure and useful way. Now the question is, "How fast and well can it be executed?" Being available yesterday would not be too soon.
Achilles tendon evaluation and repair
April 29th 2010ABSTRACT: Achilles tendon injuries are increasing as the population ages yet remains physically active later in life. Early diagnosis and management are important for good long-term outcome, but many injuries are missed or misdiagnosed on initial evaluation.
Under the "Cash for Cluckers" Program, How Many Chickens Is a Mammogram Worth?
April 28th 2010Good news doctors! Although the current Congress is content to fritter away your future income with so-called healthcare reform, a plucky Republican candidate for Senate in Nevada has offered a sensible (and tasty) alternative to the usual fee for service: poultry!
RA task force releases treatment recommendations
April 28th 2010Remission must be the ultimate therapeutic goal for patients with rheumatoid arthritis (RA), according to an international task force that set out to develop recommendations for achieving optimal outcomes in RA in clinical practice. Treatment targets have helped improve outcomes in other areas of medicine (eg, diabetes mellitus, hyperlipidemia, and hypertension), the investigators noted, but treatment targets had not been defined for RA, even in light of major treatment changes in recent years (see Box, “Sea change in RA treatment,” below). Therefore, using evidence obtained from a systematic literature review and expert opinion, they formulated a consensus finding that resulted in 10 recommendations for treatment to target in RA.
Online Follow-up Visits Provide Similar Clinical Outcomes as Office Visits
April 27th 2010According to the results of a study conducted by Massachusetts General Hospital, patients with acne who complete a follow-up visit via a secure website may achieve similar clinical outcomes as patients who receive in-person visits.
Neuromuscular training puts a stop to lower limb injuries
April 26th 2010Proprioceptive and neuromuscular training help reduce the incidence of some types of injuries among adolescent and young adult athletes participating in sports that involve pivoting. Balance exercises and multi-interventional training programs (balance plus strength and flexibility maneuvers) may be particularly effective in preventing basketball, soccer, handball, and floorball injuries.
Ankylosing Spondylitis Best Identified With Erosions on MRI
April 26th 2010For patients who have ankylosing spondylitis (AS), radiographic assessment of the sacroiliac joint with MRI is the cornerstone of evaluation and treatment. Erosions alone-rather than bone marrow edema or contrast medium enhancement-are the most disease-specific measurable imaging findings in sacroiliac MRI of patients with AS in clinical practice.
Cardiovascular benefits with statins outweigh diabetes risk
April 26th 2010There is a small absolute risk of diabetes mellitus (DM) in patients who receive statin therapy, but that risk is easily outweighed by the benefit that statins provide in reducing cardiovascular (CV) events. Therefore, clinical practice does not need to change for patients with moderate or high CV risk or existing CV disease.
Improve microvascular dysfunction and RA, reduce cardiovascular risk, with antirheumatics
April 26th 2010Microvascular dysfunction correlates with systemic inflammation, which plays a key role in cardiovascular disease (CVD) as well as in rheumatoid arthritis (RA). In patients who have active RA, microvascular dysfunction improves in those who respond to antirheumatic treatment; aggressive control of RA disease activity helps avoid further joint damage and disability and may reduce CVD risk.