Washington University in St. Louis offers a multidisciplinary program for IgG4-Related Disease (IgG4-RD), a rare condition in which the immune system causes inflammation and scarring in different parts of the body. This disease can affect many organs, including the pancreas, bile ducts, kidneys, lungs, and glands in the head and neck. If not diagnosed and treated early, it can lead to long-term organ damage.
Because IgG4-RD can present differently depending on the organ involved, patients are often seen by multiple specialists, which can delay diagnosis. This program brings specialists together to provide coordinated and timely care.
The collaboration includes physicians from rheumatology, gastroenterology, pathology, ear, nose, and throat (ENT), and radiology, with ongoing expansion to additional specialties. This team-based approach is designed to improve communication across specialties and reduce delays in care.
Patients are evaluated using a combination of their symptoms, imaging studies such as CT or MRI scans, blood tests, and biopsy results when needed. The goal is to make an accurate diagnosis as efficiently as possible while ruling out other conditions that may appear similar, including cancer.
Treatment is tailored to each patient based on the organs involved and how severe the disease is. Most patients are initially treated with steroids to reduce inflammation, and some may require additional medications to control the immune system and prevent the disease from returning.
The program also includes a longitudinal patient registry, to better understand how the disease presents, how patients respond to treatment, and how outcomes can be improved over time. This supports ongoing research aimed at developing better treatments and improving patient care.
The WashU IgG4-RD Multidisciplinary Collaboration focuses on improving early diagnosis, coordinating care across specialties, and advancing research to improve outcomes for patients with this condition.
Collaborators
Rheumatology: Sambhawana Bhandari MD, Sarah Naids MD, MS, Collin Diffie MD, Deborah Parks MD, Alfred H. Kim MD, PhD
GI: Koushik Das MD, Vladimir M. Kushnir, MD, FASGE, AGAF
ENT: Allison Ogden MD, FACS
Pathology: Liang-I Kang MD, Paul Buttars DO