For the Patient

What Is A Rheumatologic Disease?
Rheumatology is concerned with the care of those with any of the large number of diseases that affect the joints, muscles and skeletal system, as well as certain disorders that are characterized by widespread inflammation. These diseases range from osteoarthritis, tendinitis and gout to the rheumatic diseases.

What Is A Rheumatic Disease?
Rheumatic diseases, sometimes called collagen or connective tissue diseases, include a variety of inflammatory conditions such as rheumatoid arthritis, systemic lupus, scleroderma, vasculitis and psoriatic arthritis.

Each of the rheumatic diseases involves an autoimmune attack on different components of the body's tissues by the person's own immune system. The T cells and autoantibodies involved in the attack normally protect the body from viruses, bacteria, and other infectious agents. The attack by T cells and autoantibodies is misdirected to self-tissues and causes inflammation and loss of function. There are still many unanswered questions about the nature of each rheumatic disease, how tissue injury occurs, who will have a mild or a severe course and how to treat the disorder.

There is a special problem in the treatment of the rheumatic diseases because T cells and autoantibodies are also needed to protect the individual from infection. Accordingly, therapy of these diseases is particularly difficult since the abnormal immune response must be decreased, while preserving the important protective function of the immune response in warding off infections. There are many new therapies being developed for the rheumatic diseases.

What is being done by the Division to help the patient with a rheumatic disease?
There are two interrelated activities carried out in the Division for the benefit of patients. The first is research on the cause and processes involved in the rheumatic diseases. The second are clinical trials to identify the efficacy of new therapies for the disease.


Clinic Information
The clinics are all held in the Associates in Internal Medicine (AIM) practice on the first floor of the Berrie Pavilion at 1150 St. Nicholas Ave., just West of Broadway between168th and 167th Street. 212-851-5350

There are three clinic sessions:
Margrit Wiesendanger, M.D., Ph.D., Chief
Lupus clinic: Monday 9:00AM
Special arthritis clinic: Tuesday 9:00AM
Faulkner General Arthritis clinic: Wednesday 1:00PM

Physicians Available for Consultation
Ralph Blume, MD 212 305-5512
Edward Dwyer, MD 212 305-1020
Neil Gonter, MD 201-837-7788
Rima Kopelman, MD 201 444-4526
Elizabeth Mayer, MD 212 305-5213
Katherine Nickerson, MD 212 305-8039
Jill Silverman, MD 212-317-4500