Rheumatoid Arthritis

Latest News


Methotrexate has been the mainstay treatment for mild to moderate arthritis for many years, and the recent update to the American College of Rheumatology Guidelines on the Management of Rheumatoid Arthritis aims to maximize the use of methotrexate before advancing to a biologic or targeted synthetic disease-modifying antirheumatic drug (DMARD). With this in mind, it is important to be up-to-speed on initiating methotrexate in patients with rheumatoid arthritis. Test your knowledge with this quiz.

Give It 60 Seconds

By

Healthy movement plays a critical role in the treatment of rheumatic disease because it can strengthen the muscles around the effected joints, aid in bone loss decrease, and improve joint lubrication which helps to decrease stiffness and improve pain.

Bryant England, MD, PhD, discusses his study, "Risk of COVID‐19 in Rheumatoid Arthritis: A National Veterans Affairs Matched Cohort Study in At‐Risk Individuals." Investigators found that patients with rheumatoid arthritis (RA) are not only at a higher risk for contracting COVID-19, they are more likely to have severe outcomes, such as hospitalization and death, when compared with the general population.

Both patients with early rheumatoid arthritis (ERA) and those at-risk for developing rheumatoid arthritis (RA) had a significantly different oral microbiome when compared with a control group. Most notably, the pro-inflammatory discriminative zero-radius operational taxonomic units (zOTUs), Prevotella and Veillonella, were much more prevalent in these groups than in patients with no history of autoimmune conditions.

Mindfulness interventions teach and promote the use of psychological skills to improve quality of life among individuals with chronic conditions like rheumatic disease. These interventions largely act by reducing pain-related activation in the sensory cortex and increasing activity in the cingulate cortex, the area of the brain responsible for learning, memory, and processing bodily sensations, like pain.