Jay Mehta, MD, MSEd: Rheumatologic Lab Evaluation of Musculoskeletal Pain

For the 2021 American Academy of Pediatrics Conference, Jay Mehta, MD, MSEd, Associate Professor of Clinical Pediatrics, Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia, shared his presentation on pediatric rheumatology, “Red Flag or Red Herring: Rheumatologic Lab Evaluation of Musculoskeletal Pain”.

In this video interview, Mehta explained that his presentation goes into how to differentiate between a red flag, or something that should raise concern for a pediatrician, versus a red herring, something that may look abnormal but isn’t cause for concern.

So when should a pediatrician refer to a pediatric rheumatologist? Mehta provided examples of 3 common scenarios that pediatricians might be presented with when seeing patients and the importance of interpreting laboratory results.

Mehta also discussed the array of treatment options that have been, and continue to be, introduced including targeted treatments for specific cytokines, jack inhibitors, oral medications that work for a number of diseases and other biologics that are more specific.

“I think one of the most exciting things about rheumatology,” Mehta said, “and one of the things that got me excited about it in the first place, is just the number of treatments coming out.”