Rheumatology
Clinical discussions on autoimmune diseases, biologic therapies, vasculitis, and musculoskeletal conditions.
Recent Discussions
How do you decide on the next therapy for post-ICI triple M syndrome (myositis/myocarditis/myasthenia) after steroids, PLEX, and IVIG?
The short answer is that there is no standard of care, and no way to reliably predict which of the third-line treatments will work best for each individual. As an introduction, 3M syndrome is a horrible combination of 3 immune-related adverse events (iRAEs) after ICI exposure for cancer, including m...
What is your approach to a patient with RF+/CCP+ rheumatoid arthritis that was previously on TNFi now with high-titer ANA and dsDNA (crithida 1:2560), +chromatin, +histone?
This scenario reads like TNF inhibitor drug-induced serological lupus. The first clinical issue is: are there accompanying symptoms or signs of systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE) beyond the underlying inflammatory arthritis, which would be better attributed to the seropositive rheumatoid arthritis (...
How do you interpret treatment response in the DISCOVER-2 Trial when patients were allowed to remain on up to 10mg of prednisone equivalent for disease control while on guselkumab?
The dependence on the use of systemic glucocorticoids may indeed be a good reason to change treatment. Especially in patients with psoriatic arthritis. So, if patients are unable to stop systemic glucocorticoids and there are still treatment options for the patient, this could be tried. It is diffic...
How long would you recommend that a patient continues guselkumab prior to deciding that the therapy is not effective?
Many trials have a placebo-controlled period of 12-24 weeks. Thereafter, all patients receive active treatment. Even if the original treatment allocation remains unknown to the patient and doctor, they know that from that moment on, everyone receives active treatment. This will have an influence on ...
Before re-challenging a patient with ICI after grade 1-2 pneumonitis, do you re-image to confirm resolution of pneumonitis?
Grade 1 pneumonitis is defined as confined to one lobe of the lung or <25% of the total lung parenchyma, while grade 2 pneumonitis is defined as involving more than one lobe of the lung or 25-50% of the lung parenchyma. Grade 1 pneumonitis is typically an incidental finding on CT in an asymptomatic ...
Do you routinely check morning cortisol before discharging a patient who received more than 3 days of high-dose corticosteroids during a hospitalization for an acute illness?
There is not enough detail in the question to provide a clear answer. Usually, suppression of the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal (HPA) axis would take more than just a few days. If someone has been on high-dose glucocorticoids for longer (e.g., two weeks), we would usually discharge the patient on a...
Should the use of avacopan be limited to those patients at increased risk of steroid toxicity given the anticipated high cost of this medication?
Once Avacopan is available for clinical use in the treatment of patients with AAV, providers will need to carefully weigh risks and benefits of the medication while considering other factors including cost.The ADVOCATE trial used a novel glucocorticoid toxicity index that captures common GC-related ...
What factors would encourage you to choose abatacept vs tocilizumab in a patient with RA-ILD with a UIP pattern of pulmonary fibrosis?
The available literature on abatacept and tocilizumab in RA-ILD does not provide a definitive answer and hopefully with the general increase in interest in ILD we will have more definitive data in the near future. My review of the current literature suggests that abatacept has a slightly higher perc...
Would you consider combining voclosporin and obinutuzumab for pure Class V lupus nephritis?
I agree with @Andras Perl. Changing his regimen is indicated since target proteinuria (<700 mg/day by 1 year) has not been achieved, and renal biopsy shows ongoing active inflammatory class V (very smart to get that biopsy, by the way!).Obinituzumab (OBI) is the better choice than belimumab in patie...
Which biologics for severe RA are safe in CKD4?
Most biologics, such as monoclonal antibodies, are large proteins that are not cleared by the kidneys, and thus, no dose adjustment is needed for renal impairment, and can be used in advanced stages of CKD. Keep in mind among tsDMARDs that the JAK inhibitors do have a renal dosing adjustment require...