The Limbic

Patients with asthma and COPD prescribed semaglutide for diabetes appear to have fewer flare-ups than those on other treatments, a study presented at the ERS Congress has found. The analysis used UK electronic medical records of between 20,000 and 22,000 people who started taking either any GLP-1RA or sulfonylureas for diabetes [link here].

Gastroenterologists shouldn’t shy away from discussing complementary and alternative medicines in their IBD consults, with most patients already turning to these strategies anyway, delegates at Australian Gastroenterology Week 2026 heard.

Associate Professor Miriam Levy. An Australian pilot has shown the emergency department could present a practical and easy way to reach patients with chronic hepatitis that risk-based testing misses by leveraging existing automated laboratory workflows.

Starting advanced therapies early makes an “irrefutable” difference in Crohn’s disease, providing the best chance to achieve deep remission, prevent complications, and improve long-term outcomes, a UK IBD expert says. Speaking at Australian Gastroenterology Week 2026 in Perth, Professor Peter Irving shared his views on how gastroenterologists and their patients could best manage the increasing number of treatment decisions resulting from the “immense array of drugs now available”.

Liposuction could offer ‘substantial’ pain relief for women with lipoedema who remain symptomatic despite standard care, with the first randomised trial showing benefits across all three disease stages. At 12 months, 68% of women assigned to liposuction achieved a clinically meaningful reduction of at least two points in leg pain, compared with 8% who continued conservative therapy alone (OR 26.2, 95% CI 13.1-52.5).

Novartis has suspended multiple trials evaluating its CAR-T therapy for autoimmune diseases following serious inflammatory side effects.

Clinically capable humanoid robots could help solve the rheumatology workforce crisis, according to a surprising suggestion from US clinicians in a rheumatology journal. In the futuristic article published in ACR Open Rheumatology [link here], the clinicians propose embedding the humanoid systems in existing training programs should the time come that “they eventually enter clinical care”, although, unlike human trainees, they would never graduate.

Fake research produced by commercial “paper mills” has made its way into well-ranked dermatology journals, with researchers warning that fabricated findings can circulate for years before retraction. An analysis of the Retraction Watch Database identified 118 paper mill-associated articles among 1209 dermatology retractions: roughly one in 10. Far from being confined to the fringes of academic publishing, 80% had appeared in journals ranked in the first or second SCImago quartile.

High protein diets might be popular in the general population at the moment but for the CKD population, the recommendation is to go low. US nephrologist Professor Connie Rhee, who describes her practice as sitting at the intersection of kidney disease, nutrition and endocrinology/metabolism, told delegates at the ANZSN Congress that their patients would likely benefit from a plant-dominant, low-protein diet (PLADO).

Advances in understanding of IgA nephropathy (IgAN) and its progression plus the growing list of effective agents that have emerged in recent years represents a revolution in the management of not just IgAN but glomerular diseases more broadly. Professor Richard Lafayette, from the Stanford University Medical Center, told the Congress that the ‘flip’ in approach between 2021 and 2025 KDIGO guidelines on IgAN [link here] was evidence of the fast pace of change.