Scleroderma

Scleroderma patients have a significantly reduced life expectancy that is most likely being underestimated, delegates have heard. Most studies on scleroderma survival are based on prevalent cohorts, where no limit is placed on disease duration at the time of recruitment. This leaves results wide open to “survival bias”.

In a bid to overcome the issue and get to the true figures, Dr Nikpour and colleagues from across Australia evaluated the survival rates of nearly 1,300 scleroderma patients from 13 centres, compared with the general Australian population. Patients were studied as an entire cohort, but also as a separate cohort of patients who had been recruited within 5 years of disease onset.

A biomarker that can be used to screen Scleroderma patients for pulmonary hypertension has shown promise in a proof of concept study. Researchers from St Vincent’s in Melbourne found asymmetric dimethylarginine (ADMA) levels had an acceptable high specificity and sensitivity for detecting the complication, particularly when used in conjunction with NT-proBNP.

When combined with the biomarker commonly used in heart failure the test had a sensitivity of 93.3% and a specificity of 100% for detecting PAH, said author Vivek Thakker (pictured) from St Vincent’ in Melbourne who presented his poster during a tour led by Wendy Stevens from the same hospital.

Australia is in a state of ‘clinical equipoise’ over whether to anticoagulate systemic sclerosis patients with pulmonary hypertension, experts say. And with observational studies showing the treatment is associated with a  fivefold reduction in mortality, the issue demanded a prompt resolution, the team of rheumatologists wrote in this week’s Internal Medicine Journal.

Describing the issue as one of the “most contentious” in the management of patients with connective tissue disease, the doctors said anticoagulation was currently not regarded as standard care in these

Men with autoimmune diseases have a higher incidence of prostate cancer (PCa) than those without those diseases, according to study findings presented at the American Urological Association annual meeting.

Using the National Inpatient Sample database, researchers obtained data on 189,290 men with a history of autoimmune disease—multiple sclerosis (MS), systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE), systemic sclerosis, psoriasis, Sjogren's syndrome, discoid lupus erythematosus (DLE), or rheumatoid arthritis (RA)—and a subsequent diagnosis of PCa.

The University of Michigan Health System is widely known for medical innovation — from the research laboratory to the patient’s bedside — but in partnership with dedicated donors, the institution is also innovating the way it raises money to accelerate groundbreaking research.

With the help of local philanthropists Jon and Lisa Rye, whose close family member was diagnosed with the debilitating skin disease Scleroderma, UMHS is reaching out to the Scleroderma community to help fund promising new research underway in the U-M Division of Rheumatology.

Systemic sclerosis (SSc), also known as Scleroderma, is a rare autoimmune connective tissue disorder that's difficult to treat. However, thanks to new research at Dartmouth's Geisel School of Medicine and Northwestern University's Feinberg School of Medicine, doctors may be able to treat some patients more effectively.

Characterized by thickening of the skin, SSc can also cause significant complications in the joints and internal organs—particularly the esophagus, lower gastrointestinal tract, lungs, heart and kidneys. There is no cure—and the one drug commonly used to treat the disease, mycophenolate mofetile (MMF) does not work for all patients. In the absence of a biomarker to inform therapeutic medical decisions, patients are exposed to ineffective and potentially toxic medications.