by Brigham and Women’s Hospital Credit: CC0 Public Domain A new study by investigators from Brigham and Women’s Hospital found a potential direct link between exposure to parental smoking during childhood and increased risk of seropositive rheumatoid arthritis (RA) later in life. Researchers utilized established longitudinal data from 90,923 women in the Nurses’ Health Study II...
AMERICAN COLLEGE OF RHEUMATOLOGY ATLANTA — A new study reveals that Black patients with rheumatoid arthritis (RA) were less likely to be prescribed a biologic treatment and more likely to use glucocorticoids, which carry a risk of serious long-term side effects. This study highlights ongoing racial disparities in the care of patients with rheumatic disease....
Better quality of life for people with rheumatic and musculoskeletal diseases EUROPEAN LEAGUE AGAINST RHEUMATISM Kilchberg/Switzerland: Disease-related, profound fatigue impairs the quality of life of many people with rheumatic and musculoskeletal diseases. A Belgian study (1) has now concluded that early intensive treatment combining methotrexate with a bridging scheme of prednisone can reduce the onerous...
Yuxuan Li, from the First Affiliated Hospital of China Medical University in Shenyang, and colleagues explored the correlations between IL-35 levels and bone loss in postmenopausal women, including 76 with RA and 53 healthy controls. Additionally, dual-energy X-ray absorptiometry was used to measure bone mineral density (BMD) at lumbar spine 1 to 4 and at...
By Charlotte Lillis Reviewed by Brenda B. Spriggs, M.D. FACP Rheumatoid arthritis is an autoimmune condition that mainly affects the joints. Stem cell therapy is a relatively new area of research that is showing promise in treating autoimmune conditions such as this. In rheumatoid arthritis (RA), the immune system mistakenly attacks the tissue that lines the joints, which can...
Newly identified subsets of cell types present in joint tissue in people with rheumatoid arthritis and how they interact may explain why only some people respond to existing medications, according to two studies by co-senior author Laura Donlin, Ph.D., Co-Director of the Derfner Foundation Precision Medicine Laboratory at Hospital for Special Surgery (HSS) and collaborating colleagues. The findings...
During cartilage development, chondrocytes secrete the extracellular matrix (ECM) and embed within the same environment. During progressive joint disease, such as osteoarthritis (OA), dysregulation of the process can lead to ECM degradation. In a recent study, Eun Kyung Song and co-workers examined samples of cartilage from patients with OA and found reduced expression of integrin-β-like...
Chances are when people think of biomarkers, they think of cancer, thanks to the explosion of research and targeted diagnostics and treatment in recent years. But scientific understanding of biomarkers in autoimmune diseases is also rapidly advancing, and Bristol-Myers Squibb (BMS) scientists are leading the charge. We sat down with Bristol-Myers Squibb’s Sean E. Connolly,...
New research suggests that rheumatoid arthritis may increase the risk of developing chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD). The findings, which appear in Arthritis Care & Research, indicate that greater vigilance may be needed to protect the respiratory health of individuals with chronic inflammatory conditions. Research has demonstrated an association between COPD and inflammation, raising the question...
The results of a meta-analysis presented today at the Annual European Congress of Rheumatology (EULAR) 2017 press conference has demonstrated that early therapeutic intervention in patients with so-called pre-rheumatoid arthritis (pre-RA) significantly reduces the risk of the occurrence of rheumatoid arthritis (RA) in these patients at 52 weeks or more. Recent progress in the understanding...
