Clinical and Experimental Rheumatology

OBJECTIVES: Starting from the unmet need of early diagnosis and treatment in systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE), the study aims to explore patient preferences in diagnostic pathways and treatment modalities. It seeks to integrate clinical priorities with patient perspectives, providing an optimal approach to SLE treatment that remains uncertain. METHODS: A discrete choice experiment (DCE) has been conducted to investigate whether patient preferences align while maintaining consistent attributes and levels, providing a direct assessment of relative preferences and hypothetical treatment approaches in SLE...

OBJECTIVES: To explore whether the balance of CD226 and TIGIT is disturbed in CD3+CD56-TCRαβ+CD4-CD8- (DN) T cells and have a better understanding of the potential role of DN T cells in the pathogenesis of primary Sjögren's syndrome (pSS). METHODS: The percentage of DN T cells as well as the expression of CD226 and TIGIT was identified by flowmetry. After in vitro stimulation, we further detected the expression of activation and cytotoxic marker, as well as intracellular cytokines secreted by DN T cells...

OBJECTIVES: Sarcoidosis is a clinically heterogenous disease. The objective of this study is the identification of clinical phenotypes using cluster analysis. METHODS: A model-based clustering relaying on 19 clinical variables was performed in a retrospective cohort of 342 sarcoidosis patients, diagnosed and followed-up from 1999 to 2019 in a tertiary hospital at Northern Spain. Chi-square test and ANOVA were used to compare categorical and continuous variables among groups...

OBJECTIVES: In recent years, the distinct clinical presentations and elevated mortality rates of various subtypes of juvenile idiopathic arthritis (JIA) with pulmonary involvement have garnered significant attention. This study aimed to elucidate the clinical characteristics of pulmonary involvement in patients with JIA to improve clinicians' knowledge. METHODS: This single-centre retrospective study analysed the baseline data, treatment options, follow-up of sixty patients of JIA with pulmonary involvement in China...

OBJECTIVES: Evidence regarding the efficacy of neridronate in the treatment of complex regional pain syndrome type I (CRPS I) is increasing, however, very little data are available in paediatric age. Our aim was to analyse the safety and the efficacy of neridronate in a case series of children with CRPS I, according to the Budapest criteria, who did not respond to previous pharmacological and physical therapy. METHODS: We collected data of children affected by CRPS I from three paediatric rheumatology centres who received neridronate...

OBJECTIVES: Behçet's disease (BD) is a systemic vasculitis affecting all sizes of arteries and veins. Approximately 5-10% of patients with BD are present during childhood. The chronic nature of the disease may lead to serious cardiovascular complications over time including early atherosclerosis. Increased levels of epicardial adipose tissue (EAT) and carotid intima-media thickness (CIMT) are considered early signs of subclinical atherosclerosis. Ongoing chronic inflammation may cause to increase in both EAT and CIMT...

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No abstract text is available yet for this article.

No abstract text is available yet for this article.

No abstract text is available yet for this article.

OBJECTIVES: To determine features and frequency of ultrasound (US)-detected tenosynovitis in ankles with clinically active disease and to investigate whether its detection may affect the achievement of inactive disease in patients with new-onset juvenile idiopathic arthritis (JIA). METHODS: The study included children with new-onset JIA and clinically active disease of the ankle. Based on US, patients were stratified as having isolated arthritis or as having tenosynovitis irrespective of the presence of concomitant arthritis in the ankle...

OBJECTIVES: To develop an easy-to-use and efficient clinical score to identify monogenic lupus based on clinical presentations and to stratify patients who may benefit from confirmatory molecular genetic testing. METHODS: A comprehensive literature review identified 55 distinct items across 12 clinical and laboratory domains, narrowed down to the top ten by a panel of 12 expert paediatric rheumatologists with 80% consensus. The proposed score was tested in a pilot study on 10 patients with monogenic lupus and 30 control subjects with various autoimmune and autoinflammatory diseases...

OBJECTIVES: An important area of research in juvenile idiopathic arthritis (JIA) aims to identify sensitive and reliable biomarkers of disease activity. The key iron-regulatory hormone hepcidin-25 (HEP) has been advocated as a potential biomarker to assess anaemia of chronic disease and iron deficiency in adults with rheumatoid arthritis. METHODS: We performed a cross-sectional study evaluating the utility of serum HEP in 79 non-systemic onset JIA patients (14 males, 65 females), with/without anaemia, determining its correlations with disease activity, assessed by the JIA Disease Activity Score (JADAS)-27, anaemia parameters, and iron status indices...

No abstract text is available yet for this article.

OBJECTIVES: Body mapping of normal values of skin thickness and hardness may be a useful aid in daily practice. By employing non-invasive techniques, our pilot study provides these values in healthy individuals using high frequency ultrasound (HFUS) and durometry in areas used to evaluate the modified Rodnan skin score (mRSS). METHODS: One-hundred-fifty-two healthy volunteers from Ghent and Genova University Hospitals (mean ages 31.2, 35.5, and 64.9 years), were evaluated to exclude rheumatologic diseases...

OBJECTIVES: Recurrent thrombosis is one of the main clinical features of antiphospholipid syndrome (APS), and recent studies revealed that APS shares similar pathophysiological mechanisms with atherosclerosis. Oxidised low-density lipoprotein (OxLDL) and antibodies against OxLDL (anti-OxLDL) are involved in the development of atherosclerosis. This study aims to investigate the clinical significance of OxLDL and anti-OxLDL in APS patients. METHODS: One hundred and seventy APS patients and 39 healthy controls (HC) were enrolled...

OBJECTIVES: Psoriatic arthritis (PsA) is an immune-inflammatory disease occurring in a subgroup of patients suffering from psoriasis. Dactylitis is recognised as a hallmark of PsA, being present in about 50% of patients. This article gives an overview of the complexity of psoriatic dactylitis, looking at clinical aspects as well as pathogenetic aspects and subsequent insights into treatment strategies. METHODS: The review focuses on the main evidence on pathogenesis, clinical features, and management of psoriatic dactylitis...

Left ventricular diastolic dysfunction (LVDD) plays a central role in the pathophysiology of heart failure with preserved ejection fraction (HFpEF), a major manifestation of heart failure (HF). Low-grade inflammatory reaction is the key mechanism leading to LVDD. Rheumatoid arthritis (RA) is a systemic inflammatory disease and affects 0.5-1.0% of the adult population. Several epidemiologic studies find that the risk of LVDD is increased in RA than in the general population. Since inflammation plays an important role in the pathogenesis of LVDD and RA is a disease characterised by chronic systemic inflammation...

OBJECTIVES: To perform a systematic review and meta-analysis to assess the clinical efficacy of collagen-based supplements on knee osteoarthritis (OA) symptoms. METHODS: Until October 2023, we conducted searches on the MEDLINE, EMBASE, Web of Science, and Scopus databases to identify randomised controlled trials (RCTs) that reported the effects of oral collagen-based supplements on knee OA. Quantitative data from outcomes were pooled using a random- or fixed-effects model (depending on inter-study variability) and the generic inverse variance method...

Chronic rheumatological diseases are multifactorial conditions in which both the neuroendocrine hormone pathway, including cortisol, sex hormones and active vitamin D3 (calcitriol), all deriving from cholesterol, and the epigenetic modifications that they cause play an important role. In fact, epigenetics modulates the function of the DNA of immune cells, through three main mechanisms: DNA methylation, modifications to the histones that make up chromatin and production of non-coding RNAs (microRNA - miRNA)...