ACR Journals on Air Podcast
Welcome to ACR Journals on Air, the ACR’s newest podcast series featuring interviews, commentary, and analysis on research from our three peer-reviewed journals: Arthritis & Rheumatology, Arthritis Care & Research, and ACR Open Rheumatology. Join us each episode for engaging discussions with authors and independent experts about recently published studies, their implications for clinical care, and how they move the field of rheumatology forward.
Whether it’s an expert analysis of a manuscript or deep dive with an author—our goal is the same—to understand the impact of the science and bring it from the bench to the bedside.
Podcast Host
Victoria Shanmugam, MBBS, MRCP, CCD, has clinical expertise caring for patients with autoimmune diseases, vasculitis, and chronic wounds. She has led several research studies investigating scleroderma, hidradenitis suppurativa, and the interplay of the host immune response and the microbiome in chronic wounds. Dr. Shanmugam is a frequently invited speaker at professional meetings. Her work in wound healing, hidradenitis, and scleroderma has been published in high-impact peer-reviewed journals, such as Arthritis Care and Research, Current Opinion in Rheumatology, International Wound Journal, and Clinical Rheumatology. Connect with Dr. Shanmugam on Twitter (@VickiShanmugam).
Episodes
New episodes will be available twice a month on Tuesdays.
Episode 19 – How Squishy Are Your Cells?
Episode 18 – Less Is More
Episode 17 – Location, Location, Location
Episode 16 – SSc Pulmonary Hypertension
Episode 15 – Uric Acid: How Low Can You Go
Browse previous episodes in the ACR Journals on Air archive.
Episode Show Notes
In this episode, Alexandru-Emil Matei, MD, is the first author of a study that endeavored to evaluate immune cell activation in scleroderma. His study, written for the completion of his medical training in Romania, Identification of a Distinct Monocyte-Driven Signature in Systemic Sclerosis Using Biophysical Phenotyping of Circulating Immune Cells (recently published in Arthritis & Rheumatology) performed biophysical phenotyping of circulating immune cells by employing a novel high-throughput method called ‘real-time fluorescence and deformability cytometry’ (RT-FDC). Dr. Matei’s study attempts to demonstrate that RT-FDC measures can “detect changes in the biophysical properties of individual immune cell populations in SSc patients”. If demonstrated, then RT-FDC may be used as another tool in identifying pathologic immune cell activation, being that immune cells like monocytes play a major role in systemic sclerosis (SSc)
Alexandru-Emil Matei, MD - Alexandru-Emil Matei, MD, completed his medical training in Bucharest, Romania, and subsequently joined the group of Professor Jorg Distler at the University of Erlangen as a PhD student. After graduating, he began his medical residency at the University Hospital Erlangen and is now developing his research group at the Clinic for Rheumatology and Hiller Research Unit of the University Hospital and Heinrich Heine University, Dusseldorf.
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Caring for older adults who suffer from rheumatic disease comes with it the need to manage multimorbidity, polypharmacy, and geriatric syndromes. Often, shifting priorities for those suffering with rheumatic musculoskeletal diseases (RMDs) is needed, sometimes leading to a prescribing cascade. The practice of ‘deprescribing’, an approach to optimize medication use to deliver a more ‘goal-concordant’ type of care was the focus of Dr. Una Makris and Dr. Jiha Lee’s latest research, Optimizing Medication Use in Older Adults With Rheumatic Musculoskeletal Diseases: Deprescribing as an Approach When Less May Be More. When caring for older adults with RMDs, it very well may be that less is more.
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In a study recently published in ACR Open Rheumatology, Geographic Variation in Disease Burden and Mismatch in Care of Patients With Rheumatoid Arthritis in the United States, first author Sharon Dowell, MD, set out to understand some of the factors associated with regional variation of rheumatoid arthritis (RA) in the United States. Dr. Dowell presents her study’s findings and conclusions. Tracy Johansson, MS, member of the RISE registry team, joins us to discuss how RISE attempts to close these gaps. Together, both of our guests help us to understand how geographic location contributes to a disproportionate level of care for those with RA and what we can do about it.
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Pulmonary hypertension (PH), being a serious complication of systemic sclerosis (SSc), develops late in the course of SSc and carries with it a poor prognosis. With the median survival of about 3 years, new evidence suggests that early diagnosis and treatment can significantly improve survival. Joining us this week is Christopher P. Denton, PhD, FRCP, senior author of Dynamic Prediction of Pulmonary Hypertension in Systemic Sclerosis Using Landmark Analysis, published in Arthritis & Rheumatology. Dr. Denton’s latest study explores the prediction of short-term risk for PH using serial pulmonary function tests (PFTs).
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In this episode, we are joined by Joshua Baker, MD, MSCE, first author of a paper recently published in Arthritis & Rheumatology, Associations Between Low Serum Urate, Body Composition, and Mortality. Dr. Baker, recognizing the controversy in whether low serum urate or uric acid (UA) level contribute to adverse outcomes, set out to evaluate the relation between low serum UA levels and sarcopenia, to assess whether sarcopenia confounds associations between these low levels and mortality.
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