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 0:04

· 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.