Etanercept transformed the treatment of RA by blocking TNF, but even more targeted agents might be more effective with greater safety. That’s the thought behind the Accelerating Medicines Partnership program to unravel the molecular action of rheumatoid arthritis at the cellular level.

It’s tough to predict the course of rheumatologic disease, but a new statistical approach using multi-state models can help.

The first-ever ACR guideline being developed for the management of granulomatosis with polyangiitis (GPA), microscopic polyangiitis (MPA), and eosinophilic granulomatosis with polyangiitis (EGPA) provides useful recommendations for managing these complex conditions in clinical practice.

Inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) and joint diseases such as spondylarthritis (SpA) are familiar comorbid conditions. But comorbid does not necessarily mean co-treatment, at least not with the rapidly developing armamentaria available to rheumatologists and gastroenterologists.

“Even when clinicians deal with these issues on a regular basis, how often do we really think about them? This is a refresher on things we think we know but may not actually remember correctly,” said David Borenstein, MD.

Kawasaki disease is most likely a rheumatologic condition associated with an overactive immune response to infection. And while the disease has long been viewed as being driven by TNF, new findings implicate interleukin 1β.

The latest investigative approaches can look at individual genes within single cells, multiplied by thousands of cells for each of hundreds of healthy and diseased subjects. These new hypothesis generating studies can reveal novel and surprising truths about physiology and pathophysiology.

“Recent evidence implicates neutrophil dysregulation in the pathogenesis of various systemic autoimmune diseases and associated organ damage,” said Mariana Kaplan, MD.

In The Rheum sessions have been designed so leading experts can talk about the most important and somewhat controversial topics facing the rheumatology community.

This year’s session will highlight the latest scientific evidence and best practices about three challenging conditions managed by rheumatologists