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 48 – Calprotectin in Antiphospholipid Syndrome
Episode 47 – The Quest for Prevention in Autoimmune Disease
Episode 46 – What Came First
Episode 45 – History Matters
Episode 44 – The RENEW Study in Scleroderma
Browse previous episodes in the ACR Journals on Air archive.
Episode Show Notes
To better understand the mechanisms that drive antiphospholipid syndrome (APS), Yu Zuo, MD, MSCS, and his team, evaluated the presence of circulating calprotectin (cCLP) to detect any clinical associations or even the mechanistic role among a cohort of primary APS and aPL-positive patients. Dr. Zuo sits down with us to discuss whether calprotectin can be a functional biomarker for those with APS thrombocytopenia and what the future holds for this study’s conclusions.
Yu Zuo, MD, MSCS – Yu (Ray) Zuo, MD, MSCS, is the Edward T. and Ellen K. Dryer Early Career Professor of Rheumatology and Assistant Professor in the Division of Rheumatology at the University of Michigan. His research centers on the pathogenic role of neutrophil extracellular traps (NETs) and related autoimmune responses in thromboinflammatory conditions like antiphospholipid syndrome, vasculitis, and COVID-19. He has authored some 50 papers, and his research has been featured in top-tier journals like <,em>Blood, Science Translational Medicine, and Arthritis & Rheumatology. He receives research support from the NIAMS, ANRF, RRF, the Frankel Cardiovascular Center at the University of Michigan, and the Taubman Research Institute. Recognized for his scientific contributions, Dr. Zuo has recently received the 2024 Young Physician Scientist Award from the American Society for Clinical Investigation. He is the associate director of the Michigan APS Program.
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Benjamin Franklin once said: “An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure”. This week, we have the opportunity to see this realized in a recent clinical study entitled, Vitamin D and Marine n-3 Fatty Acids for Autoimmune Disease Prevention: Outcomes Two Years After Completion of a Double-Blind, Placebo-Controlled Trial. Our guest is the study’s first author, Karen Costenbader, MD, MPH. She explains the results of this research, which suggests vitamin D and marine n-3 fatty acids play a significant role in preventing autoimmune disease.
Karen Costenbader, MD, MPH – Karen Costenbader, MD, MPH, is Professor of Medicine at Harvard Medical School and holds the Michael E. Weinblatt, MD Distinguished Chair in Rheumatology in the Division of Rheumatology, Inflammation and Immunity at Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston, Massachusetts, where she serves as Director of the Lupus Program and Chief of the Section of Clinical Sciences. She is a graduate of Williams College, University of Cambridge, Harvard Medical School, and Harvard School of Public Health, and trained in medicine and rheumatology at Massachusetts General Hospital and Brigham and Women’s Hospital. Dr. Costenbader’s research investigates the epidemiology and pathogenesis of systemic lupus erythematosus and rheumatoid arthritis. She is an experienced research mentor for medical students, residents, graduate students in epidemiology, and rheumatology fellows and junior faculty, having trained over 40 doctoral and post-doctoral fellows and faculty. She is PI of the BWH Lupus Registry containing data on more than 2,800 patients. She is a co-editor of Arthritis and Rheumatology, the chair of the Medical and Scientific Advisory Council for the Lupus Foundation of America, and recent past chair of the National Institutes of Health AMS study section grant review committee.
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Caring for our patients means reducing symptoms and occurrences of flare-ups. However, caring for their whole self means a watchful eye on how chronic disease symptoms impact their daily life and mental health. Discovering patterns between depression and anxiety and such chronic diseases, like ankylosing spondylitis, psoriatic arthritis, and rheumatoid arthritis, was the focus of Dr. Alyssa Howren’s latest study. In this episode, we take a look at this study, titled: "What Came First?” Population-Based Evaluation of Health Care Encounters for Depression and Anxiety Before and After Inflammatory Arthritis Diagnosis: Disentangling the Relationship Between Mental Health and Arthritis, and try to disentangle the web of disease-related depression and anxiety.
Alyssa Howren, PhD – Alyssa Howren, PhD, is a Postdoctoral Fellow at Stanford University’s Department of Epidemiology and Population Health in the School of Medicine. Dr. Howren completed her MSc and PhD training at the University of British Columbia’s Faculty of Pharmaceutical Sciences during which she was a trainee at Arthritis Research Canada. Her PhD training was supported by a Canadian Institute of Health Research (CIHR) Doctoral Award, along with UBC’s Wayne Riggs Interdisciplinary Scholarship in Pharmaceutical Sciences and Andrew Nord Fellowship in Rheumatology. Her research focuses on using multiple data sources to provide evidence to disentangle the complex relationship between depression and anxiety with inflammatory arthritis and assess how people living with inflammatory arthritis are treated for their comorbid mental disorders. Methodological approaches in Dr. Howren’s work have included systematic reviews, qualitative research, and population-based studies using linked administrative health databases. Recently, she awarded a CIHR Fellowship for her postdoctoral research at Stanford University which aims to evaluate whether biases in clinical decision-making contribute to the sex and gender differences observed in the diagnosis of major depressive disorder.
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When disease strikes, time becomes a critical resource our patients cannot afford to waste. For those with axial spondyloarthritis (axSpA), an inordinate amount of time often goes by before a proper diagnosis is made, resulting in delays for crucial treatments to be rendered. The reasons for this delay in diagnosis, particularly among those with axSpA are diverse, complicated and not well understood. Our guest, Gregory McDermott, MD, MPH, attempted to better understand this diagnostic delay with his study, Factors Associated With Diagnostic Delay in Axial Spondyloarthritis: Impact of Clinical Factors and Social Vulnerability, in hopes that we may begin answering these challenges with solutions.
Gregory C. McDermott, MD, MPH – Gregory McDermott, MD, MPH, is an Instructor in Medicine and Attending Rheumatologist at Brigham and Women’s Hospital and Harvard Medical School in Boston, MA.
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Systemic sclerosis (SSc) is a painful and debilitating disease that our patients suffer from. However, a newly published study has concluded that there are some self-management interventions patients can engage with that have shown to improve fatigue, particularly for those newly diagnosed with SSc. Today, we review the procedures, interventions, results and conclusions of this study recently published in Arthritis Care & Research, Effects of a Resilience-Building Energy Management Program on Fatigue and Other Symptoms in Systemic Sclerosis: A Randomized Controlled Trial, with two of its authors, Susan L. Murphy, ScD, OTR and Mary Alore, MBA, and how your patients can benefit from its lessons.
Susan Murphy, ScD, OTR – Susan Murphy, ScD, OTR, is a Professor in the Department of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation, and Internal Medicine, Rheumatology Division at the University of Michigan. Dr. Murphy’s research focuses on developing and implementing chronic symptom management interventions using behavioral and rehabilitation approaches to support holistic clinical management. She has a particular interest in advancing telerehab and mobile health interventions and directs the Telehealth and Rehabilitation Advancing Chronic Condition Research Center (TRACC-R) at the University of Michigan. Her work focuses on community-engaged research, partnering with individuals who have scleroderma. She is also the Director of a postdoctoral fellowship training grant on Community Living and Participation funded by the National Institute on Disability, Independent Living, and Rehabilitation Research (NIDILRR) and trains mentees in community-engaged research and clinical trial development.
Mary Alore, MBA – Mary Alore, MBA, is a patient advocate and has been actively involved in patient support groups since her diffuse scleroderma diagnosis in 2011. She is dedicated to helping others with this challenging condition, providing resources, and letting them know they are not alone.
As a peer mentor in the University of Michigan Peer Mentor Program, she is equipped to provide personalized guidance and recommendations to individuals with scleroderma. Observing how mentoring positively impacts participants has strengthened her commitment to supporting her peers.
She has bridged the gap between researchers and patients by assisting in recruitment efforts and informing research findings for various scleroderma studies as a patient stakeholder.
Mary is an IT specialist who helps bloggers and business owners with email marketing, technical support, and website development.
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