The relationship between HLA-B*51 subtypes, clinical manifestations and severity of Behçet's syndrome: a large Italian cohort study.

Objectives: Behçet's syndrome (BS) is a chronic multisystemic inflammatory disorder of unclear aetiology. The predominant BS susceptibility locus was identified within HLA-B*51. HLA-B*51 subtypes were previously studied as disease susceptibility markers.

rs1800629 Polymorphism and Response to Anti- Treatment in Behçet Syndrome: Data from an Italian Cohort Study.

Tumor Necrosis Factor-alpha () rs1800629 (-308G>A) is a single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) related to variable responses to anti- therapy. This therapy is efficient in severe and refractory manifestation of Behçet syndrome (BS), an auto-inflammatory systemic vasculitis. We investigated (1) the association between rs1800629 genotypes and responses to therapy and (2) the correlation between SNP and clinical patterns in a cohort of 74 BS Italian patients receiving anti- therapy with a follow-up of at least 12 months.

Expert consensus on the treatment of patients with adult-onset still's disease with the goal of achieving an early and long-term remission.

We performed a comprehensive systematic targeted literature review and used the Delphi method to formulate expert consensus statements to guide the treatment of adult-onset Still's disease (AOSD) to achieve an early and long-term remission. Seven candidate statements were generated and reached consensus in the first round of voting by the panel of experts. We postulate: (i) In patients with AOSD with predominant arthritis at onset who achieved no disease control with glucocorticoids (GCs), the use of methotrexate can be considered, whereas the use of cyclosporin A and low-dose GCs should not (Statements 1-3); (ii) In patients with AOSD with poor prognostic factors at diagnosis, an IL-1 inhibitor (IL-1i) in addition to GCs should be taken into consideration as early as possible (Statement 4); (iii) A switch to an IL-6 inhibitor (IL-6i) may be considered in patients with AOSD with prevalent joint involvement, who are unresponsive or intolerant to IL-1i (Statement 5); (iv) Drug tapering or discontinuation may be considered in patients who achieved a sustained clinical and laboratory remission with IL-1i (Statement 6); (v) In patients with AOSD who failed to attain a good clinical response with an IL-1i, switching to an IL-6i may be considered in alternative to a different IL-1i.

Age at diagnosis influences the clinical phenotype, treatment strategies and outcomes in patients with giant cell arteritis: results from the observational GCAGE study on a large cohort of 1004 patients.

Background: Immune and vascular ageing are proposed risk factors for giant cell arteritis (GCA). Data on the impact of age at diagnosis of GCA on the clinical presentation and course of the disease are scarce.

Methods: Patients with GCA followed at referral centres within the Italian Society of Rheumatology Vasculitis Study Group were enrolled up to November 2021.

Validity of Machine Learning in Predicting Giant Cell Arteritis Flare After Glucocorticoids Tapering.

Background: Inferential statistical methods failed in identifying reliable biomarkers and risk factors for relapsing giant cell arteritis (GCA) after glucocorticoids (GCs) tapering. A ML approach allows to handle complex non-linear relationships between patient attributes that are hard to model with traditional statistical methods, merging them to output a forecast or a probability for a given outcome.

Objective: The objective of the study was to assess whether ML algorithms can predict GCA relapse after GCs tapering.