Rheumatology and Immunology

The Department of Rheumatology and Immunology of the First Affiliated Hospital of Chongqing Medical University is an emerging discipline integrating medical care, teaching, and scientific research. It mainly provides diagnosis and treatment for common rheumatic diseases as well as rare and difficult-to-diagnose and difficult-to-treat diseases, and specializes in the rescue and treatment of critically ill patients. All physicians on the department’s medical team hold master’s degrees or higher, including 3 with doctoral degrees; they have participated in the formulation of two Chinese expert consensus documents and possess solid theoretical foundations and extensive clinical experience. All nurses hold bachelor’s degrees or higher, including 1 with a master’s degree, and have specialized nursing experience. The department undertakes the medical education and training of undergraduate students, graduate students, and resident physicians undergoing standardized training. The team’s main research direction is basic and clinical translational research on mesenchymal stem cells in refractory rheumatic and immune diseases. It was among the first internationally to propose a new therapeutic strategy combining stem cells with other drugs for the treatment of refractory rheumatoid arthritis, providing a promising treatment option for patients with refractory rheumatoid arthritis; the research findings were published in the top rheumatology journal Ann Rheum Dis. Department personnel lead or participate in multiple national- and provincial/ministerial-level projects. The department is qualified to conduct clinical drug trials and has participated in multiple nationwide multicenter registration clinical trials.

The Department of Rheumatology and Immunology has an outpatient clinic and an independent inpatient ward. It has now established relatively comprehensive programs for autoantibody profiles, lymphocyte subsets, genetic testing, and others, including a full myositis antibody panel, rheumatoid factor, anti-cyclic citrullinated peptide antibodies, antinuclear antibodies (ANA), anti-ds-DNA antibodies, anti-ENA antibodies, antiphospholipid antibodies, anti-neutrophil cytoplasmic antibodies (ANCA), HLA-B27, and other tests. It has developed distinctive diagnostic and therapeutic technologies, including joint ultrasonography, skin biopsy, muscle biopsy, lymph node biopsy, labial gland biopsy, arthrocentesis, and plasma exchange; it specializes in the use of biologics (TNF-α inhibitors, IL-6 inhibitors, IL-17 inhibitors, anti-CD20 monoclonal antibodies, etc.) and small-molecule targeted drugs to treat rheumatoid arthritis, systemic lupus erythematosus, ankylosing spondylitis, vasculitis, Behçet syndrome, and many other rheumatic and immune diseases. The department’s diagnostic and treatment system is conducted in strict accordance with clinical diagnostic and treatment standards, and an international disease diagnosis, treatment, and evaluation system is implemented. Rheumatic diseases are difficult and complex and are prone to causing multiple-system organ damage. The team places emphasis on strengthening multidisciplinary collaboration, regularly conducts joint interdisciplinary consultations, continuously advances the level of diagnosis and treatment for difficult and critical illnesses, and safeguards public health.

The department has established cooperative relationships with many renowned domestic and international academic disciplines, ensuring that its clinical diagnosis and treatment remain aligned with advanced standards. It also actively develops new technologies and methods and promotes new models of clinical diagnosis and treatment.

The department’s main scope of disease diagnosis and treatment includes: systemic lupus erythematosus, antiphospholipid syndrome, rheumatoid arthritis, osteoarthritis, ankylosing spondylitis, inflammatory myopathies (dermatomyositis, polymyositis, antisynthetase syndrome, immune-mediated necrotizing myopathy, inclusion body myositis, clinically amyopathic dermatomyositis, etc.), Sjögren syndrome, systemic sclerosis, mixed connective tissue disease, undifferentiated connective tissue disease, overlap syndrome, reactive arthritis, vasculitis, osteoporosis, gouty arthritis, primary biliary cholangitis, autoimmune hepatitis, ANCA-associated vasculitis (granulomatosis with polyangiitis, eosinophilic granulomatosis with polyangiitis, and microscopic polyangiitis), Takayasu arteritis, polymyalgia rheumatica, giant cell arteritis, Behçet syndrome, polyarteritis nodosa, allergic cutaneous vasculitis, cryoglobulinemic vasculitis, IgA vasculitis, retroperitoneal fibrosis, IgG4-related disease, RS3PE syndrome, undifferentiated arthritis, rheumatic and immune diseases associated with pregnancy and childbirth, autoinflammatory diseases (such as adult-onset Still’s disease), and other rheumatic and immune diseases.

Department Director and Academic Leader: Yang Yi, member of the Communist Party of China, Doctor of Medicine, Deputy Chief Physician, Associate Professor, and a high-level medical talent among young and middle-aged professionals in Chongqing. She previously completed further training in the Department of Rheumatology and Immunology at Peking Union Medical College Hospital in Beijing. She serves as Deputy Director of the Rheumatology Professional Committee of the Chongqing Medical Association, a member of the Chinese Medical Women’s Association, a member of the Rheumatology and Immunology Branch of the China Primary Health Care Foundation, a member of the Asia-Pacific Society of Bioimmunology, and a member of the Stem Cell Ethics Committee of the Children’s Hospital of Chongqing Medical University. She is responsible for 1 project funded by the National Natural Science Foundation of China and 1 Chongqing Social Livelihood Science and Technology Innovation Project. She participated in writing the Chinese Expert Consensus on the Application of Biologics in Systemic Lupus Erythematosus (2024 Edition) and the Chinese Expert Consensus on Rituximab Treatment of Rheumatic and Immune Diseases. She has published multiple academic papers in Annals of the rheumatic diseases and other high-impact journals in the field of rheumatology. “Health is entrusted to us, and life is entrusted to us”; “Life above all, and compassion in medicine.” All medical and nursing staff of the Department of Rheumatology and Immunology of the First Affiliated Hospital of Chongqing Medical University take safeguarding health and caring for life as their mission and, with a professional attitude of pursuing excellence, provide safe, high-quality services to the many patients they serve.