Nicole Saddic Thomas, MD, FACR A 40-year-old gentleman came to me complaining of fevers, night sweats,10 pounds unintentional weight loss, and swollen ankles. He had high calcium levels and very high levels of inflammation noted on his blood tests. There were no clear-cut infections to account for the inflammation. To investigate further, I obtained x-rays, […]
Grace E. Ahn, MD FACR Shingles is an infection caused by a virus called varicella. This is the same virus that causes chickenpox. Once the virus enters your body, it can stay dormant in your nerves and reactivate at a later time, causing an infection called herpes zoster, more commonly known as shingles. Patients can […]
Written By: Angus Worthing MD In case you missed it, a new kind of medicine recently arrived in rheumatology: the biosimilar. What exactly is a biosimilar? Well, you may know what biologics are – medicines that are given as injections or infusions for rheumatoid arthritis, psoriatic arthritis and other autoimmune diseases that have been in use […]
By Justin Peng, MD, FACR Pneumococcal infections, including pneumonia, are a leading cause of hospitalizations, morbidity and mortality here in the U.S. There are many different types of pneumococci, but the most commonly identified cause of pneumonia hospitalizations in the U.S. is the bacterium Streptococcus pneumoniae, also called pneumococcus. Vaccination against these organisms reduces the […]