What does a goiter and syphilis have in common with the first descriptions of giant cell arteritis? Join us as we dive into the history of the most common type of vasculitis!

• Intro 0:13
• GCA at ACR 2025 00:30
• How Brown has approached framing this episode 1:01
• A primer leading us to GCA 3:15
• Let's get to the story 4:02
• The man who couldn't wear a hat 4:57
• Dr. Bayard Horton's 7:40
• A tangent on cluster headaches 8:27
• Let's get back to GCA 13:16
• The first temporal artery biopsy 14:28
• Vision loss and other puzzle pieces of GCA 16:27
• What about jaw claudication? 21:15
• Could GCA be transmissible? Injecting ground temporal arteries into healthy volunteers 24:13
• Oxygen? Histamines? Adrenal cortical extract? Looking for GCA treatments 26:55
• Steroids and GCA 28:40
• A quote from the 1959 Mayo Clinic Board of Governors 32:24
• Extracranial involvement in GCA 33:24
• When did we recognize aorta involvement? Syphilis enters the picture 35:08
• A recap of the history of GCA 41:25
• Thanks for listening 42:19

We'd love to hear from you! Send your comments/questions to Dr. Brown at rheuminationspodcast@healio.com. Follow us on Twitter @HRheuminations @AdamJBrownMD @HealioRheum.

References:

Boes CJ, Cephalalgia. 2007;doi:10.1111/j.1468-2982.2007.01238.x

Cummer CL, et al. JAMA. 1912;doi:10.1001/jama.1912.04270080101004

Horton BT, Proc Cent SOC Clin Res. 1946

Sproul EE, et al. Am J Pathol. 1937;PMID: 19970328

Disclosures: Brown reports no relevant financial disclosures.

The story of rheumatoid factor could be a 10 minute episode, but in this episode, we dig deep into the history of the lab techniques leading up to this discovery…that happened twice.

· Intro 0:04

· Rheumatoid factor quick background and history 00:22

· Rheumatology blood tests 2:47

· What is Rheumatoid factor? 3:39

· Spiderman and latex agglutination: Testing for rheumatoid factor 4:49

· 4:54

· The double discovery of rheumatoid factor 7:52

· Putting agglutination on the medical map in 1896 10:03

· Pop Quiz! 11:04

· Serotherapy 13:00

· When did we start using agglutination for testing? 14:07

· First discovery of blood groups 14:44

· The complement fixation test 17:12

· Testing for syphilis with complement fixation and agglutination 20:53

· The first discovery of rheumatoid factor 24:02

· We forget about rheumatoid factor 27:48

· Rediscovering rheumatoid factor 28:20

· Analytical ultracentrifugation 32:55

· What rheumatoid factor is used for 35:50

· Thanks for listening 38:09

We'd love to hear from you! Send your comments/questions to Dr. Brown at rheuminationspodcast@healio.com. Follow us on Twitter @HRheuminations @AdamJBrownMD @HealioRheum.

References:

Assadian O et al. Wien Klin Wochenschr. 2010;doi:10.1007/s00508-009-1297-1

Edelman GM, et al. J Exp Med. 1958;doi:10.1084/jem.108.1.105

Franklin EC, et al. J Exp Med. 1957;doi:10.1084/jem.105.5.425

Fraser KJ. Semin Arthritis Rheum. 1988;doi:10.1016/0049-0172(88)90035-2

Jonsson R. Ann Rheum Dis. 2020;doi:10.1136/annrheumdis-2019-216822

Mohd Noor NH, et al. Cureus. 2024;doi:10.7759/cureus.68903

Tan EM, et al. J Exp Med. 2016;doi:10.1084/jem.20160792

Disclosures: Brown reports no relevant financial disclosures.

Active or not active, that is the question. In this week's episode we interview Alexandra Villa-Forte, MD, MPH, a staff physician in the Center for Vasculitis Care and Research at Cleveland Clinic and a leading vasculitis expert, on a pragmatic approach to recognizing disease activity in patients with ANCA vasculitis.

• · Intro 0:01
• · Welcome Alexandra Villa-Forte, MD, MPH 0:10
• · Dr. Brown sketches a potential patient that may be seen in practice 0:40
• · How are you monitoring patients' kidneys? 1:28
• · How reliable are 'no casts' results in urinalysis tests? 4:15
• · What is happening in the glomeruli? 5:23
• · The importance of monitoring the urinalysis of patients with ANCA vasculitis 7:06
• · Symptoms to watch for when tapering off medications 7:43
• · Different scenarios with lung symptoms 9:35
• · Evaluating patients with GPA; looking at the nose, ear and sinuses 12:20
• · Neurologic symptoms in ANCA vasculitis 14:24
• · Laboratory monitoring 15:52
• · Should ANCA titers be a part of routine vasculitis monitoring? 17:05
• · What is your approach using PJP prophylaxis in ANCA-associated vasculitis? 18:05
• Thank you, Dr. Villa-Forte! 20:25

We'd love to hear from you! Send your comments/questions to Dr. Brown at rheuminationspodcast@healio.com. Follow us on Twitter @HRheuminations @AdamJBrownMD @HealioRheum.

Disclosures: Brown reports no relevant financial disclosures. Healio was unable to confirm relevant financial disclosures for Villa-Forte at the time of publication.