Jan 20th, 2022 - WAIKOLOA, Hawaii — Clinical research, personal experience, physician skill set, patient factors and goals all influence the decision to perform trabeculectomy or use a tube shunt, a speaker said here at Hawaiian Eye 2022. “Individualize the treatment choice to the patient in front of you,” Brian E. Flowers, MD, said. If the IOP target is low or if the patient is younger or has medication tolera...

Sep 9th, 2022 - The hypothesis is that the addition of daratumumab administered SC to standard MM regimens will improve responses compared to response data observed in completed phase 3 studies without daratumumab. Disease evaluations will include measurements of myeloma proteins, bone marrow examinations, skeletal surveys, assessment of extramedullary plasmacytomas, and measurements of serum calcium corrected...

Aug 16th, 2022 - On July 18, 2022, the New York State Department of Health (NYSDOH) notified CDC of detection of poliovirus type 2 in stool specimens from an unvaccinated immunocompetent young adult from Rockland County, New York, who was experiencing acute flaccid weakness. The patient initially experienced fever, neck stiffness, gastrointestinal symptoms, and limb weakness. The patient was hospitalized with p...

Aug 15th, 2022 - Health care workers (HCWs) are at increased risk for acquiring SARS-CoV-2 infection,1 raising the issue of adequate protective measures. Although scientific evidence regarding the benefit of respirator vs surgical masks is sparse,2,3 a previous study has suggested that respirator masks (ie, FFP2) may offer additional protection to HCW with frequent COVID-19-patient exposure.4 In this follow-up ...

Nov 14th, 2022 - Background/Purpose: Multisystem inflammatory syndrome in children (MIS-C) is a severe hyper-inflammatory condition associated with a recent SARS-CoV-2 infection. Case reports began in April of 2020 from Italy and the United Kingdom documenting cases of children with shock-like illness and features of Kawasaki Disease (KD). Epidemiologic data demonstrates a latent rise and peak of MIS-C cases ap...

Nov 14th, 2022 - Background/Purpose: Muscle involvement in systemic sclerosis (SSc) has been shown to be heterogeneous. Histopathological pattern seems to be associated with prognosis, but studies evaluating the correlations between muscle involvement subtypes, clinical presentation and outcomes are scarce. The aim of this study was to evaluate the prognostic value of histopathological muscular type in SSc. Met...

Nov 14th, 2022 - Background/Purpose: NLRP3-associated autoinflammatoy disease (NLRP3-AID) and NLRP12-AID are rare autosomal dominant diseases. FACS1(familial cold autoinflammatory syndrome type 1), a subset of NLRP3-AID, is thought to be phenotypically similar to FCAS2(NLRP2-AID). NLRP3 and NLRP12 are members of the NOD-like receptors(NLRs) and their gene mutations contribute to these diseases. This study aimed...

Nov 14th, 2022 - Background/Purpose: Primary retinal vasculitis (PRV) refers to inflammation in the retinal vasculature without any infectious etiology, systemic disease association, or concomitant ocular disease. PRV is a diagnosis of exclusion. Retinal vasculitis patients usually undergo a thorough diagnostic evaluation to search for an underlying systemic association and often require visits from multiple sp...

Nov 14th, 2022 - Background/Purpose: Patients with dermatomyositis (DM) and antibodies (ab) to melanoma differentiation associated gene 5 (MDA5) share similar clinical characteristics to patients infected with the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) including high risk of fatal, rapidly progressive interstitial lung disease (RP-ILD). Nearly 50% of patients with COVID 19 have anti-MDA5 a...

Nov 14th, 2022 - Background/Purpose: Idiopathic inflammatory myositis (IIM) includes a spectrum of a rare autoimmune disease characterized by proximal muscle weakness, variable skin manifestation and extra muscular manifestations. Rituximab has been shown to be effective in refractory IIM. The aim was to describe myositis specific autoantibodies (MSA) associated clinical and laboratory characteristics including...

Nov 14th, 2022 - Background/Purpose: Dermatomyositis (DM) is an autoimmune connective tissue disease that primarily affects the skin and lung; few effective treatment options are available. Lenabasum is a cannabinoid type 2 receptor agonist that activates the resolution phase of inflammation. Results from DETERMINE, a Phase 3 trial of lenabasum, demonstrated improvement in CDASI activity (CDASI-A) scores with t...

Nov 14th, 2022 - Background/Purpose: Dermatomyositis (DM) is a systemic autoimmune disease that affects the skin and muscle. Lenabasum, a cannabinoid type 2 receptor (CB2R) agonist, has been developed as a potential treatment to reduce inflammation in DM. Additional research has also shown that lenabasum also exerts its anti-inflammatory effects through the binding of peroxisome proliferator-activated receptor ...

Nov 14th, 2022 - Background/Purpose: Patients with CTD-ILD are often treated with a combination of corticosteroids and steroid sparing agents to limit the progression of the inflammatory response in the lung and prevent remodeling that can lead to fibrosis. While tapering regimens for steroids are part of the standard of care in CTD-ILD, there is no significant experience on outcomes in patients who taper stero...

Nov 14th, 2022 - Background/Purpose: It has been hypothesized that autoimmunity may play a role in the pathophysiology of schizophrenia (SCZ). Several autoimmune disorders (AID) have also been noted to be prevalent in schizophrenics.. We aim to record the prevalence of different AID in schizophrenia patients, and determine clinical characteristics and inpatient outcomes for this patient population. Methods: We ...

Nov 14th, 2022 - Background/Purpose: Ocular inflammatory involvement for being closely related to systemic autoimmune diseases is monitored and treated in our rheumatology visits. The most frequently studied by rheumatologists are acute anterior uveitis, usually unilateral, which are frequently associated with spondyloarthritis. However, there are other clinical situations of ocular inflammation, which, althoug...

Nov 14th, 2022 - Background/Purpose: Sensitivity to ultraviolet (UV) light affects ~ 80% of systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE) patients. UV light exposure of lupus skin leads to local and systemic inflammation and can trigger lupus nephritis flares. Cellular and molecular mechanisms of UV light-triggered kidney injury are unknown. We use single-cell RNA-sequencing analysis to identify renal cell subsets damaged...

Nov 14th, 2022 - Background/Purpose: Systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE) is a chronic autoimmune disease characterized by enhanced sensitivity to ultraviolet radiation (UVR). UVR can trigger cutaneous and systemic disease flares, yet mechanisms driving these responses are not yet fully characterized. Type I interferons (IFNs) are overexpressed in non-lesional SLE skin compared to healthy control skin and promote...

Nov 14th, 2022 - Background/Purpose: With an incidence of 10 cases per million and lack of animal or ex vivo disease models, dermatomyositis (DM) remains a debilitating disease without a cure or the understanding of the pathogenic mechanisms. Recent studies showed that monocytes and macrophages reside in DM skin and demonstrate diverse phenotypes. While keratinocytes in DM skin have an inflammatory gene signatu...

Nov 14th, 2022 - Background/Purpose: Chimeric antigen receptor (CAR)-T cell therapies have revolutionized the treatment of cancer and can be curative. CD19-targeted CAR-T cells hold promise for the treatment of refractory autoimmune diseases, but therapies that indiscriminately deplete all B cells are limited by infection risk. In contrast, precision immunotherapies that selectively eliminate autoreactive B cel...

Nov 14th, 2022 - Background/Purpose: Calcinosis cutis is a debilitating complication of systemic sclerosis (SSc) with no effective treatments. Although the pathogenesis of SSc-related calcinosis remains unknown, there is growing evidence of a link between calcinosis and vascular hypoxia. Osteoclasts are large multinucleated giant cells that participate in bone remodeling and can be induced by hypoxia, as shown ...