News from Rheumatologists' Major Annual Conference

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Nov 24, 2014, 12:28 ET

NORWALK, Conn., Nov. 24, 2014 /PRNewswire/ -- UBM Medica US announces that Rheumatology Network, a leading online community for rheumatologists, features major coverage of the American College of Rheumatology (ACR) annual meeting just concluded in Boston.

Rheumatologists are the specialists who treat diseases of the joints, including arthritis that affects some 50 million Americans and other diseases including lupus and vasculitis, which cause chronic pain because the immune system for some reason attacks a patient's own tissues. The ACR annual meeting is the major forum at which these doctors share the latest information about treatment and diagnosis.

Among the new information now available on Rheumatology Network, based on in-person coverage of the ACR conference:

A new, easily available blood test now allows doctors to quickly distinguish osteoarthritis, a common but incurable form of joint inflammation whose cause is not well understood, from rheumatoid arthritis, which is treatable and may be resolved if discovered early in the course of the disease.
Although increasingly available and often promoted for pain relief, marijuana is proving not to be an effective way to relieve the pain of rheumatic diseases in the latest research. In fact, it appears positively detrimental to patients with lupus, and may increase their mortality risk.
A new study shows one explanation for the poor nationwide control of gout, an increasingly common and easily treated disease in which crystals deposited in the joints cause immense pain. It turns out that many doctors refer patients with acute gout pain to the emergency room rather than treating them in the office, at which point the situation deteriorates rapidly – and unnecessarily.

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SOURCE UBM Medica US