Piercarlo Sarzi-Puttini

..The diagnostic and clinical approach to osteoarthritis (OA) of the hand, knee, and hip in general practice and specialist practice in Italy as determined by the AMICA project...

..This review will discuss the recent literature concerning the most common dysfunctional disorders: fibromyalgia syndrome, myalgic encephalomyelitis/chronic fatigue syndrome, and irritable bowel syndrome...

..Physical exercise and multimodal cognitive behavioural therapy are the most widely accepted and beneficial forms of non-pharmacological therapy...

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..The two models (neurochemical and biopsychosocial) also affect our ability to find therapeutic answers...

..The aim of this study was to assess whether the myoelectrical manifestations of fatigue in patients affected by FM are central or peripheral in origin...

..The objective is to investigate the localisation of immunoglobulin-producing cells (IPCs) in samples of inflamed intestinal tissue taken from patients with IBD, and their possible relationship with clinical features...

..As these are all associated with an unfavourable prognosis, it is essential to detect subclinical cardiac involvement in asymptomatic SAD patients, and begin adequate management and treatment early...

..Due to the lack of evidence of a beneficial effect of anti-TNF-alpha agents in treatment of CHF, they should not be used to treat patients with New York Heart Association (NYHA) class III or IV heart failure...

..The study was designed to evaluate their prescription modalities to determine whether they matched the recently proposed treatment guidelines for OA (ACR 2000; EULAR 2000; APS 2002)...

..The disease course and patient's requirements often change over time, thus requiring a periodic review and readjustment of therapy rather than the rigid continuation of a single treatment...

..3% and in 12.9% of adalimumab-treated RA patients. Only limited data on the induction of aPL antibodies during TNF-alpha blocking treatment are available...

..To investigate the prevalence of antipolymer antibody (APA) in patients with fibromyalgia (FM) and to examine its association with FM severity symptoms...

..The nature of FM suggests that an individualized, multimodal approach that includes both pharmacologic and nonpharmacologic therapies seems to be the most appropriate treatment strategy to date...

..The treatment of the fibromyalgia syndrome (FMS) is not standardized and often ineffective, and the course of disease progression is unpredictable...

..A better understanding of the etiopathogenetic mechanism of SLE is required in order to clarify the multiple interactions between environmental exposures and genetic factors...

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..This review discusses the general aspects of the altered HPA and ANS, sympathetic overactivity, and alterations in cardiovascular autonomic responses to gravitational stimuli...

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..Purpose of this review is to summarize new clinical, pathogenetic and therapeutic insights of this disease...

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..Active PsA is a risk factor for CVD, and so PsA patients should be screened for subclinical forms of the disease and its risk factors, and an early treatment approach should be adopted...

..This is the first case, to our knowledge, of onset of prolonged infliximab-induced lupus...

..To validate a translated Italian version of the Fibrofatigue Scale (FFS)...

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..To identify the clinical factors predicting failure or a good clinical response in the cohort of RA patients entered in the Lombardy Rheumatology Network (LORHEN) registry after 3 years of treatment with anti-TNF agents...

..The patients with higher disease activity levels and those stopping the first anti-TNFalpha treatment because of a lack of efficacy are very likely to respond to the second treatment...

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..014), and the concomitant use of corticosteroids (p=0.029) as significant predictors of infections. There was no statistically significant difference in risk between the anti-TNFalpha agents...

..Comorbidities, increasing DAS28 values and co-therapy with methotrexate were associated with a lower risk of discontinuation...

..We studied survival rate, prognostic factors, and causes of death in patients with systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE), particularly focusing on the influence of disease severity...

..The aim of this study was to assess thyroid function as well as the prevalence and clinical value of anti-thyroid antibodies in patients with rheumatoid arthritis (RA)...

..To evaluate the potential role of CC chemokine receptor 5 (CCR5)Δ32 polymorphism in the susceptibility to and clinical expression of Behçet's disease (BD) in a cohort of Italian patients...

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..As these are all associated with an unfavourable prognosis, it is essential to detect subclinical cardiac involvement in still asymptomatic RA patients in order to assure adequate long-term treatment...

..We tested the hypothesis that FM is characterized by sympathetic overactivity and alterations in cardiovascular autonomic response to gravitational stimulus...

..As the first published registry of anti-TNFalpha-treated patients in Italy, Lombardy Rheumatology Network (LORHEN) is already making its contribution in this direction...

..Antinuclear and anti-dsDNA autoantibodies, but not anti-phospholipid autoantibodies, can be induced by adalimumab but to a lower extent than in studies with other anti-TNF blocking agents...

..Aim of our study was to assess the prevalence and concentration of a panel of organ-specific autoantibodies in patients with RA and to evaluate their relationship with clinical manifestations and treatment efficacy...

..A number of other more rare disorders also may be responsive to TNF blockade. We here review the current and prospective roles of infliximab in the treatment of autoimmune diseases and other conditions...

..A misdiagnosis harms the patients and the community. Rheumatologists should be able to recognise and distinguish primary and secondary FM, and need new guidelines and instruments to avoid making mistakes...

..The aim of this study was to evaluate the efficacy and tolerability of long-term treatment with cyclosporin A (CsA) in patients with psoriatic arthritis (PsA)...

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..Furthermore, plasma ADMA levels could be used as a simple means of screening SRD patients at higher CV risk who need more aggressive treatment aimed at slowing or reversing the progression of atherosclerosis...

..Moreover, chronic inflammation, accelerated atherosclerosis and functional abnormalities of the endothelium suggest a subclinical CV involvement beginning rapidly soon after the onset of the disease and progressing with disease duration...

..We here review the current and prospective roles of infliximab in the treatment of autoimmune diseases and other conditions that do not currently have FDA or EMEA approval...

..In this review, the increased risk of developing infections in these patients is also underlined and published data are reported...

..Studies predicting treatment response indicate that it is useful if not essential to tailor the choice of treatment components to the needs of individual patients...

..The purpose of this study was to investigate the prevalence of cyclic citrullinated peptide antibodies (anti-CCP) in patients with primary Sjögren syndrome (pSS) and its correlation with clinical and laboratory data...

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..This occurrence could lead to a lower-than-expected increase of IL-6, accounting for the low humoral immune response and the low disease activity observed in the third trimester of pregnancy in such patients...

..However, the greater increase in serum cortisol in comparison with serum 17OHP or ASD was related to clinical improvement, which indicates that the improvement was more related to the higher cortisol levels...

..The effects on the CV system depend on the drug itself, the dose and the period of exposure, and so CV risk should be evaluated before starting treatment with any drug...

..Long-term therapy with anti-TNF agents sensitizes the pituitary gland and improves adrenal androgen secretion, thus stimulating an alternative form of anti-inflammatory action...

..In this review an overview of the different biochemical methods of antigen preparation and the specific methodological applications is given, also describing potential critical aspects and benefits of the different protocols...

..This review describes the efficacy and adverse events associated with anti-cytokine treatments for autoimmune rheumatic diseases...

..CFR is early reduced in RA patients without clinical evidence of heart disease as a result of impaired microcirculation. CFR seems a useful technique able to follow-up and to assess effects of new drugs on RA patients...

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..Because thromboembolic events are frequently observed in primary antiphospholipid syndrome (PAPS), we assessed the risk factors for new thrombotic episodes...

..The aim of this pilot study was to use various endothelial and atherosclerosis markers to identify early cardiovascular involvement in a group of SSc patients...

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..However, this is closely related to current RA activity and therefore suggests that it is not directly related to the drug. This article considers the published data in terms of clinical practice and changes in the progression of RA...

..Granulocyte colony-stimulating factor is a proven treatment in patients with AIN of all types and is now preferred to other possible therapies...

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..However, many RA patients can be successfully treated with a second TNF antagonist, especially those discontinuing the first because of secondary failure or adverse events...

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..The aim of this study was to assess whether STE can be useful to detect subclinical cardiac involvement in RA patients...

..A number of clinical trials have shown that tumor necrosis factor antagonists are generally safe and efficacious in the treatment of PsA, and can inhibit the progression of radiographic damage...

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..As an English and a German version of the RDQ exist, but not an Italian one, we aimed at translating the RDQ into Italian and evaluating its reliability for the use of Italian-speaking GERD patients...

..We evaluated the presence of CAP in patients with fibromyalgia (FM) compared to healthy controls...

..To validate a translated Italian version of the Fibromyalgia Impact Questionnaire (FIQ)...

..The results of clinical trials of anti-inflammatory medications have been generally disappointing, but three RCTs have found that tramadol (with or without acetaminophen) is effective in FM...

..To our knowledge, this is the first case report of an association between lamotrigine and the onset of SLE (systemic lupus erythematosus)...

..To compare health-related quality of life (HRQL) in fibromyalgia (FM) patients with that of patients with rheumatoid arthritis (RA) and the general population, and investigate if the factors are associated with the greater impact of FM...

..Recognition of DILE is important because it usually reverts within a few weeks after stopping the drug...

..The potential clinical implications of autoimmunity during treatment with infliximab are unclear...

..To evaluate the prevalence and correlates of anti-pentraxin 3 (PTX3) antibodies in systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE)...

..Primary and secondary APS are both associated with a significant increase of cardiovascular risk...

..The patient was successfully treated with cyclosporin A with no recurrence of the disease in the last 2 years...

..To evaluate hypersomnolence in patients affected by fibromyalgia syndrome...

..Efforts should be made to control traditional risk factors as well as all other factors which could contribute to atherosclerotic plaque development...

..Because the tumor necrosis factor (TNF)-alpha inhibitors have proved to stop joint damage progression in severe progressive RA, the achievement of these agents in early RA are currently of great interest...

..To evaluate the effects of a diet therapy in patients with rheumatoid arthritis (RA)...

..Serum matrix Gla protein may be a marker of osteometabolic syndromes that cause hyperostosis and plays a role in Milwaukee shoulder syndrome...

..To define the optimal dose of nimesulide (NIM) for treating psoriatic arthritis...

..To evaluate the efficacy of oral chicken type II collagen (CII) in the treatment of rheumatoid arthritis (RA)...

..Therapy with tricyclic anti-depressants, such as dothiepin, therefore, may determine an improvement of pain indexes besides having an anti-depressant effect...

..To address the identification of core outcome domains, the Initiative on IMMPACT and OMERACT workshop convened a meeting to develop consensus recommendations for chronic pain clinical trials...

..Understanding of pathogenetic pathways in FMS has advanced beyond observing patient responses to neurophysiologically targeted therapies and basic research...

..More recently, other imaging modalities including magnetic resonance and computerized tomography angiography have been developed to allow imaging of the coronary arteries...

..Current epidemiological, therapeutic, autoimmune and rheumatic aspects of HIV-1 infection are here discussed...

..Many other studies are required to explain the role of autoantibodies in the pathogenesis of ATS in SLE patients, because the characteristics of SLE seem to mask their effects for atherogenesis...