Abatacept and granulocyte-colony stimulating factor in a patient with rheumatoid arthritis and neutropenia.

Neutropenia in patients with inflammatory diseases increases the risk of infection due to the disease itself and the related immunosuppressive treatments. We report the case of a 54-year-old female with rheumatoid arthritis and following development of chronic neutropenia. All investigations excluded pathogenic relations with drugs and/or other clinical situations; the gravity of neutropenia required a treatment with G-CSF and the increased articular inflammatory activity justified a biologic-therapy, abatacept (CTLA4 inhibitors).

Serological and clinical profile of systemic sclerosis: analysis in a cohort of patients from a single center in Northern Italy.

Background: The purpose of this study was to identify the frequency of autoantibodies among patients affected by systemic sclerosis (SSc) in our Rheumatology Center and analyze the correlation between serological and clinical presentations.

Methods: An automated fluoro-enzyme-immunoassay is used for the qualitative detection of sixteen antibodies: anti-dsDNA, antiRo52, antiRo60, antiSS-B, antiTopoisomerasi-I, antiCENP-B, anti-fibrillarin, antiMi-2, anti-Sm, antiU1sn-RNP, antiRNP70, antiPm/Scl100, antiPCNA, antiJo-1, antiRibosomal-P, antiRNA-Polymerase-III. These parameters were further correlated with clinical presentation of the disease.