03
January
2018
|
07:00 AM
America/New_York

Better Arthroplasty Outcomes, Hope in Scleroderma, and Other Rheumatology Advances

Medscape interviewed HSS rheumatologists Robert F. Spiera, MD and Susan M. Goodman, MD about their research presented at the 2017 American College of Rheumatology (ACR) Annual Meeting.

Dr. Goodman gave several presentations about social factors, such as income and education, that could affect joint replacement outcomes.

"What we found was that if you were highly educated, it didn't really matter where you lived; your outcome was the same. But those patients who weren't well-educated had worsening outcomes as the poverty level increased," noted Dr. Goodman.

Additionally, Dr. Spiera discussed his research about new drug compounds for scleroderma patients. During the clinical trial, patients treated with the new compound experienced an improvement in their symptoms.

Dr. Spiera and his team collected skin biopsies before and after treatment, which were reviewed by an experienced scleroderma investigator.

"He found that paired specimens from lenabasum-treated patients were clearly more likely to show improvement in inflammation. Of note, and perhaps surprising, they also were much more likely to show improvement and stabilization in fibrosis, which we did not traditionally think would likely change impressively in such a short period of time," said Dr. Spiera.

Read the full article at medscape.com [subscription required].