An integrated approach to patient care improves outcomes and well–being
Ongoing research by Dr. Lindsay Lally, for example, is helping physicians better understand and treat vasculitis, a group of rare disorders with myriad clinical manifestations and often complex patient presentations. Translational studies by Dr. Lally and colleagues, published in 2015 in Rheumatology, confirmed the diagnostic utility of assessing rho kinase (ROCK) activity to enhance the sensitivity of temporal artery biopsies in diagnosing giant cell arteritis (GCA). Aberrant ROCK activity is implicated in several vascular disorders; by staining temporal artery biopsies for phosphorylated ezrin/radixin/moesin (pERM), a surrogate marker of ROCK activity, the authors determined that GCA patients had more intense pERM staining compared with age- and sex-matched controls, regardless of whether biopsies were positive or negative by routine histopathology.
Annual Report 2016
“There may be immediate diagnostic implications here,” says Dr. Lally, adding that this staining may increase the sensitivity of biopsy, which, while considered the gold standard diagnostic test, is often negative in patients who actually have GCA. These results were recently confirmed by Dr. Lally and colleagues in a larger cohort of patients. “In the future, we would like to further investigate if altering this pathway may have a therapeutic role in GCA,” she says. Other research being led by Dr. Lally under the mentorship of Dr. Robert Spiera is a pilot study assessing the efficacy of treating polymyalgia rheumatic (PMR) by blocking the pro-inflammatory cytokine interleukin-6 (IL-6). Recently published in Arthritis &
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