Diagnosis and screening

The overall burden of vascular plaque measured on ultrasound scans is significantly associated with future risk for cardiovascular disease events in people with systemic lupus erythematosus, study findings indicate.

African–American women with systemic lupus erythematosus have an increased risk for delivering preterm or small for gestational age infants, even in the years immediately before their diagnosis, US study findings indicate.

A population-based cohort study using the 2017 EULAR/American College of Rheumatology criteria for dermatomyositis has identified a higher incidence, prevalence, and associated mortality rate than previously reported.

Some subgroups of patients with myositis-specific autoantibody positive inflammatory myopathies are “frequently misclassified” based on currently used criteria, and adopting an autoantibody-based system may improve classification, researchers report.

Quantitative computed tomography analysis has the potential to identify patients with systemic sclerosis-associated interstitial lung disease with a high 10-year mortality risk

Latika Gupta and Rohit Aggarwal evaluate the use of myositis-specific antibodies in the classification and management of this disease.

Antigone Pieta, Dionysis Nikolopoulos, and Antonis Fanouriakis discuss the causes and management of neuropsychiatric systemic lupus erythematosus, and outline unmet needs in the diagnosis and treatment of this disease.

Gatto M et al. Nat Rev Rheum 2018. doi: 10.1038/s41584-018-0133-2

Tsukamoto M, Suzuki K, Takeuchi T. Rheumatol Ther 2018. doi: 10.1007/s40744-018-0126-2