In this week's episode we interview Kinanah Yaseen, MD, a rheumatologist from Cleveland Clinic's department of rheumatic and immunologic diseases about using ultrasound for giant cell arteritis.

· Intro by Adam J. Brown, MD 0:12

· Dr. Brown's recent patient 1:34

· History of ultrasound and GCA 3:20

· Episode overview 7:05

· History of echolocation; how bats helped us invent ultrasound 8:00

· What is a bat bomb? 14:56

· How the Titanic helped us invent ultrasound 16:48

· Neurologists bring ultrasound to medicine 20:09

· OB/GYN is next to use ultrasound 23:11

· Ultrasound image quality becomes better 26:32

· Ultrasound use in giant cell arteritis 28:44

· Welcome Kinanah Yaseen, MD 33:49

· Using ultrasound in the clinic 34:25

· Can you walk us through an ultrasound of the axillary and vertebral arteries? 37:16

· Can you tell us why we stopped looking for sites to biopsy by finding narrowing of the vessels? 38:19

· Tell us about the halo sign 39:10

· How do you validate your ultrasound skills? 40:20

· If we start a patient on steroids, how useful is an ultrasound? 42:35

· Episode summary 44:20

· Thank you for listening 45:57

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.

Kinanah Yaseen, MD, is a is a staff member of Cleveland Clinic's department of rheumatic and immunologic diseases.

References:

Friedman, G, et al.Isr J Med Sci. 1988

Kaproth-Joslin K A, et al. Radiographics. 2015 ;doi:10.1148/rg.2015140300

Puéchal X, et al. Lancet. 1995;doi:10.1016/s0140-6736(95)92626-7

Schmidt W A, et al. Lancet. 1995;doi:10.1016/s0140-6736(95)93005-1

Sigel B. Ultrasound Med Biol. 1998;doi:10.1016/s0301-5629(97)00264-0

Editor's Note: This has been updated to include references.

This special edition episode features the latest installment of Healio Community's book club. Physician author Kevin J. Tracey, MD, discussed his book, The Great Nerve: The New Science of the Vagus Nerve and How to Harness Its Healing Reflexes in which he explores the potential of stimulating the vagus nerve to treat rheumatoid arthritis and other diseases.

· Intro by Adam J. Brown, MD 0:14

· A warm welcome from Leonard H. Calabrese, DO 0:25

· Introducing Kevin J. Tracey, MD 0:58

· The connection between the brain and the immune system 3:25

· Where was the switch that combined neural networks and immune response? 5:55

· A brief summary of the main parts of The Great Nerve: The New Science of the Vagus Nerve and How to Harness Its Healing Reflexes 9:18

· The science of vagal nerve stimulation 11:03

· What are the pros and cons of different strategies of stimulating the vagus nerve? 16:28

· Different inflammatory responses to implant devices 17:35

· Data on vagus nerve stimulation 21:38

· Adopting new technology 25:40

· Enhancing immune health through brain health 28:35

· Wellness behaviors 32:55

· A motivated patient 36:16

· Thank you, Dr. Tracey 38:03

· Thanks for listening 39:26

Don't miss out! To engage in future conversations like this with physician authors on Healio Community, register here.

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.

To celebrate 101 episodes, I sit with Leonard H. Calabrese, DO, to discuss his unique career in Rheumatology, spanning immunology, HIV, MECFS, IRES, CNS vasculitis and more. We also discuss how medical history shaped our careers.

· Intro 0:12

· Welcome Leonard H. Calabrese, DO 3:11

· A quick friendship begins over medical history 4:14

· How Healio Rheuminations began and where the show is now 5:38

· How Dr. Calabrese got interested in medical history 7:11

· Serotherapy 10:52

· Why patients get certain diseases 12:33

· Dr. Calabrese's career trajectory 14:43

· One day in 1981… 17:52

· A few things happened in the 90's 20:20

· Tell us about CNS vasculitis 21:53

· Don't be afraid to reinvent yourself 24:30

· Checkpoint inhibitors 25:09

· How do you keep up? 26:43

· Placebo science 28:25

· Do you think we'll ever be able to answer where diseases come from? 29:33

· Thank you, Dr. Calabrese 31:01

· Thanks for listening 31:26

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.

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 0:15
• Rheumatoid factor quick background and history 00:36
• Rheumatology blood tests 3:02
• What is Rheumatoid factor? 3:49
• Spiderman and latex agglutination: Testing for rheumatoid factor 4:50
• The double discovery of rheumatoid factor 8:03
• Putting agglutination on the medical map in 1896 10:08
• Pop Quiz! 11:21
• Serotherapy 13:10
• When did we start using agglutination for testing? 14:17
• First discovery of blood groups 14:50
• The complement fixation test 17:22
• Testing for syphilis with complement fixation and agglutination 21:01
• The first discovery of rheumatoid factor 24:11
• We forget about rheumatoid factor 27:44
• Rediscovering rheumatoid factor 28:20
• Analytical ultracentrifugation 32:50
• What rheumatoid factor is used for 36:01
• Thanks for listening 38:22

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.

This special edition episode features the latest installment of Healio Community's book club. Physician author Eric Topol, MD, discusses his book, Super Agers: An Evidence-Based Approach to Longevity, a guide to the science of living a long life free of debilitating diseases with Leonard H. Calabrese, DO, chief medical editor of Healio Rheumatology.

· Intro by Adam J. Brown, MD 0:01

· A warm welcome by Leonard H. Calabrese, DO 0:47

· Introducing Eric Topol, MD 1:12

· "Deep Medicine: How Artificial Intelligence Can Make Healthcare Human Again" but did you think it would happen this fast? 1:54

· Let's get into "Super Agers" 3:46

· What's killing most people? 6:33

· An evidence-based treatise on healthy aging 9:42

· The role of immune health in longevity 12:55

· What's next on the horizon? 16:14

· A candle in the dark 19:40

· Minimizing the risk of getting old while you age 22:14

· The influence of health behaviors on immunologic wellness 25:15

· The hot issues: GLP-1's 26:28

· A new world for immunology 31:50

· Thank you, Dr. Topol 33:09

· Thanks for listening 33:57

Don't miss out! To engage in future conversations like this with physician authors on Healio Community, register here.

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: No products or companies that would require financial disclosure are mentioned in this episode.