The wide world of rheumatology

Excerpt

What a wide range of symptoms and diseases can be seen in rheumatology outpatient wards: autoimmune diseases, such as rheumatoid arthritis and psoriatic arthritis with their proinflammatory responses and diseases, such as common variable immunodeficiency brought about by a lack of key immunological components. There are also conditions with difficult differential diagnostics in the large overlapping field of infections and rheumatology, presenting as fever of unknown origin or as infections leading to neurological problems, e. g. peripheral facial nerve palsy as a sign of neuroborreliosis, with the potential to also affect the musculoskeletal apparatus. There are complex clinical features that result from inflammation of blood vessels and there is the challenge of using and interpreting correct imaging techniques, illustrated in this issue of the Journal by an article on imaging findings in pulmonary granulomatosis with polyangiitis (GPA, formerly known as Wegener’s granulomatosis) and by case reports on large vessel arteritis and one on acute myocardial infarction as a manifestation of systemic vasculitis. The complex situation of differential diagnostics and the challenges it brings is illustrated by a case of psoriasis and arthralgia discussed in the Clinical Pathological Conference Series from the Medical University of Graz. …