A Distinguished Lecturer session Wednesday morning will provide an overview of some of the more intriguing and controversial issues involving rheumatic diseases and bone.
Ellen M. Gravallese, MD, Professor of Medicine, Myles J. McDonough Chair in Rheumatology at the University of Massachusetts Medical School and Chief of the Division of Rheumatology, will present Bones of Contention: Controversies in Rheumatic Disease and Bone from 7:30 – 8:30 am in Room W375a.
“I plan to highlight some of the newer data that is controversial in one way or another, either because there are conflicting studies in an area or because a novel concept has been introduced that hasn’t been considered previously,” said Dr. Gravallese, who will become ACR President in 2019.
The session will feature Dr. Gravallese synthesizing some of the latest basic science concepts, with a focus on clinical relevance. Topic areas include rheumatoid arthritis, axial spondyloarthritis, and the role of chondrocytes in disease states.
“One of the topics, for example, will ask the question, ‘Can we take agents from the bone field, apply them in inflammatory arthritis and predict what the outcomes will be? The answer isn’t always yes,” she said, as at least one agent has been applied in models of rheumatoid arthritis with surprising results.
Attendees can expect to learn about appraising mechanisms of bone loss and bone formation in rheumatic diseases and the implications for therapy.
“The word ‘controversy’ was chosen to indicate that the session should be thought provoking and lead attendees to consider the questions and clinical implications raised by newer findings in the bone field,” said Dr. Gravallese.