Ultrasound-Guided Procedures in Rheumatology Daily Practice: Feasibility, Accuracy, and Safety Issues.

Background/objective: The aims of this study were to describe in detail the ultrasound (US)-guided procedures in our daily rheumatology practice, to evaluate the feasibility and accuracy of US-guided procedures, and to test the efficacy of our disinfection protocol in preventing infectious complications.

Methods: This was a cross-sectional and monocentric study. Information regarding patients' age, sex, body mass index, rheumatic disease, US pathological findings, aspirated and/or injected anatomical site, US equipment (ie, probe type and frequency), and needle type was consecutively collected for each US-guided procedure in a third-level rheumatology center.

Development and validation of the SImple FIbromyalgia Screening questionnaire for improving the recognition of fibromyalgia in daily practice.

Objectives: To develop and test in a preliminary way a new self-administered and user-friendly screening tool, called SImple FIbromyalgia Screening (SIFIS) questionnaire, to screen Italian speaking patients for the presence of fibromyalgia (FM).

Methods: The development of the SIFIS questionnaire followed five steps: identification of a specific patient population, item pool development, item reduction, test of the provisional questionnaire, and validation study. The item generation was carried out by a review of the literature on the existing questionnaires.