WASHINGTON — An early, 1-year course of methotrexate may prevent anti-citrullinated protein autoantibody-negative rheumatoid arthritis in high-risk patients with clinically suspect arthralgia, noted a presenter at ACR Convergence 2024. “Patients with clinically suspect arthralgia (CSA) are at risk for rheumatoid arthritis,” Quirine Dumoulin, MD, of Leiden University Medical Centre, in the Netherlands, told attendees. She added that patients with CSA and RA are similar because both experience arthralgia of the small joints and morning stiffness, among other symptoms ..read more

WASHINGTON — Patients in early rheumatoid arthritis respond well to either abatacept or adalimumab, with the critical factor for both treatments being prompt initiation, according to data presented at ACR Convergence 2024. “Achieving optimum results in patients with rheumatoid arthritis obviously requires accurate prediction of DMARD response,” Michael Weinblatt, MD, of Brigham and Women's Hospital and Harvard Medical School, told attendees. “To date, we have very few serological parameters that can accurately predict response to our drug therapies.” Weinblatt ..read more

WASHINGTON — In this video, Namrata Singh, MD, MSCI, discusses a presentation from ACR Convergence 2024 that examined patients with rheumatoid arthritis who develop lung cancer. “The third abstract ... I hope will be observed as a clinically meaningful question,” Singh, an associate program adjunct assistant professor in the department of epidemiology and an assistant professor in the department of rheumatology at the University of Washington School of Public Health, told Healio. She also highlighted one final presentation assessing the association between RA and survival ..read more

WASHINGTON — Severe acute COVID-19 infection, as well as glucocorticoid and rituximab use, increase the risk for long COVID in patients with autoimmune rheumatic diseases, according to data presented at ACR Convergence 2024. “We know from the work of several people from the height of the pandemic that autoimmune rheumatic disease patients were at higher risk of severe outcomes from this disease, including people with comorbidities or people who were on certain drugs, like rituximab,” Namrata Singh, MD, MSCI, FACP, of the University of Washington, told attendees. To examine the ..read more

WASHINGTON — In this video, Namrata Singh, MD, MSCI, highlights two posters from her team investigating associations between cancer and rheumatoid arthritis, led by “rising stars.” The first presentation given at ACR Convergence 2024 that she spoke about evaluated the association between RA and survival after cancer. “I’m very happy to report that one of them was led by a high school student who’s a rising star and wanting to pursue a career in medicine,” Singh, an associate program adjunct assistant professor in the department of epidemiology and an ..read more

WASHINGTON — In this video, Namrata Singh, MD, MSCI, spotlights three important abstracts in rheumatoid arthritis presented at ACR Convergence 2024. “ACR, as you know, is always full and packed with new knowledge and definitely refreshing some of the older concepts that we’ve been thinking we are doing right and then all of a sudden we have some paradigm shifts,” Singh, an associate program adjunct assistant professor in the department of epidemiology and an assistant professor in the department of rheumatology at the University of Washington School of Public Health ..read more

Only 49.1% of available pediatric rheumatology fellowship slots were filled for 2025 on this year’s Match Day, representing a sharper drop-off for the specialty after years of trickling declines. Twenty-eight of 55 total pediatric rheumatology positions went unfilled on Fellowship Match Day on Dec. 5, according to the National Resident Matching Program. A total of 61.5% of pediatric rheumatology fellowships slots were filled for 2024, down from 62.8% in 2023 and 69% in 2022. “Unfortunately, our subspecialty saw a decrease in the number of fellowship positions and programs that were ..read more

WASHINGTON — In this video, Micaela F. Bayard, MD, shares her partnership and involvement with The Lupus and Allied Diseases Association and the Women in Rheumatology Task Force. “It’s very exciting because I think that women in rheumatology are doing so much in so many different aspects of rheumatology, not just clinical medicine but research and all types of research, and also pharma and biotech,” Bayard, rheumatologist at Mount Sinai and assistant professor of rheumatology at The Icahn School of Medicine, told Healio. “So, really empowering the next generation ..read more

EUALR has released new recommendations on the treatment of systemic sclerosis, advancing new treatments and updated approaches to key manifestations such as skin and lung fibrosis. “The field has significantly changed, and, according to various health systems, three drugs have been approved at least in some geographical areas,” Yannick Allanore, MD, PhD, of the department of rheumatology at Université Paris Cité, who co-authored the new recommendations, told Healio. “In line with the progresses made in rheumatology, we have now recommended both synthetic and biologic DMARDs ..read more

WASHINGTON — Alaska Native and American Indian populations demonstrate notably higher prevalences of ANCA-associated vasculitis vs. white patients, according to data presented at ACR Convergence 2024. “Our objective was to determine the prevalence and clinical characteristics of vasculitis in Alaska Native and American Indian peoples of Alaska,” Ben Henderson, a student at the University of Washington School of Medicine, told attendees. The research presented is part of a larger study called Arthritis and Autoimmune Disease Epidemiology and Impact in the Alaska Native ..read more