European multicentre study to define disease activity criteria for systemic sclerosis. I. Clinical and epidemiological features of 290 patients from 19 centres.

Objective: To investigate the existence of differences among European referral centres for systemic sclerosis (SSc) in the pattern of attendance and referral and in the clinical and therapeutical approaches.

Methods: In 1995 the European Scleroderma Study Group initiated a multicentre prospective one year study whose aim was to define the disease activity criteria in SSc. During the study period each participating European centre was asked to enroll consecutive patients satisfying American College of Rheumatology criteria for SSc and to fill out for each of them a standardised clinical chart.

Association of interferon gamma, tumor necrosis factor alpha and interleukin 6 serum levels with systemic lupus erythematosus activity.

We investigated serum level of interferon gamma (IFN-gamma), tumor necrosis factor alpha (TNF-alpha) and interleukin 6 (IL-6) using an enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) in 59 patients with systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE) and 16 healthy controls. We examined a possible association between serum levels of these cytokines and SLE activity, as well as correlation between IFN-gamma concentration and the level of TNF-alpha and IL-6 and also IL-6 and TNF-alpha. TNF-alpha and IL-6 were detectable in all 59 patients and normal individuals and their level was significantly higher in SLE patients than in the control group (p < 0.