Objectives: To assess the lung involvement in patients with Still's disease, an inflammatory disease assessing both children and adults. To exploit possible associated factors for parenchymal lung involvement in these patients.
Methods: A multicentre observational study was arranged assessing consecutive patients with Still's disease characterized by the lung involvement among those included in the AIDA (AutoInflammatory Disease Alliance) Network Still's Disease Registry.
Objective: Idiopathic inflammatory myopathies (IIM) are a heterogeneous group of systemic autoimmune disorders affecting skeletal muscles but also other organs. There are different forms of IIM, each with peculiar clinical manifestations and prognosis. Accordingly, several autoantibodies have been described in IIM, with different prevalence in the different forms of the disease.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFHemophagocytic lymphohistiocytosis (HLH) is a serious haematologic condition that can be related to various diseases, including tuberculosis (TB). The patient is a previously healthy 26-year-old man, originally from western Africa, admitted to hospital for fever and weight loss. Given the results of a computed tomography (CT) scan, ocular examination and microbiologic tests, miliary TB with pulmonary, lymph nodal and ocular involvement was diagnosed.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFWe report the first case of anti-melanoma differentiation-associated gene 5 (MDA5)-positive dermatomyositis as a systemic immune-related adverse event in a 64-year-old man receiving pembrolizumab to treat advanced lung cancer. The patient experienced hypothyroidism, myalgia, skin involvement, dyspnoea and diarrhoea. Laboratory tests revealed raised inflammatory markers, hypercreatinekinasemia and anti-MDA5 autoantibodies.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFThe association between MPO-ANCA-associated vasculitis (AAV) and interstitial lung disease (ILD) has been well established. Pulmonary fibrosis may coexist with, follow, or even precede the diagnosis of AAV, and its presence adversely affects the prognosis. The optimal approach to investigating ANCA in patients with ILD remains a subject of ongoing debate.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFInfections that are unusually severe or caused by opportunistic pathogens are a hallmark of primary immunodeficiency (PID). Anti-cytokine autoantibodies (ACA) are an emerging cause of acquired immunodeficiency mimicking PID. Nocardia spp.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBehçet's disease (BD) is a heterogeneous multifactorial autoinflammatory disease characterized by a plethora of clinical manifestations. Cutaneous lesions are considered hallmarks of the disease. However, their evolution over time and a thorough description are scarcely reported in non-endemic regions.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBackground: Eosinophils have been divided into different subpopulations with distinct phenotypes based on CD62L expression. No data are available regarding the correlation between eosinophils subphenotypes and clinical severity of asthma, as well as the effect of anti-IL-5 therapy on these cells. The study investigates the correlation between blood CD62L inflammatory eosinophils (iEos) and clinical severity of severe eosinophilic asthma (SEA) and evaluates the impact of mepolizumab on iEos.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBackground: Pru p 7 was the first gibberellin-regulated protein (GRP) to be identified as a food allergen as the basis of a pollen food allergy syndrome.
Objective: To clinically and biologically characterize a group of patients with suspected allergy to Pru p 7 to optimize the diagnostic workup of GRP sensitization.
Methods: Allergy to Pru p 7 was suspected in the presence of a systemic allergic reaction to plant food, positive skin prick test results for cypress pollen and lipid-transfer protein-enriched peach extract, and absence of Pru p 3-specific immunoglobulin E.
Introduction: This paper describes the creation and preliminary results of a patient-driven registry for the collection of patient-reported outcomes (PROs) and patient-reported experiences (PREs) in Behçet's disease (BD).
Methods: The project was coordinated by the University of Siena and the Italian patient advocacy organization SIMBA (Associazione Italiana Sindrome e Malattia di Behçet), in the context of the AIDA (AutoInflammatory Diseases Alliance) Network programme. Quality of life, fatigue, socioeconomic impact of the disease and therapeutic adherence were selected as core domains to include in the registry.
Background: Eosinophilic Granulomatosis with Polyangiitis (EGPA) is a small-vessel necrotizing vasculitis. The anti-neutrophil cytoplasmic antibodies' (ANCA) role in defining clinical EGPA phenotypes is well established. Although the role of eosinophils in disease pathogenesis has been clearly demonstrated, the value of blood eosinophil count (BEC) as a biomarker of disease phenotypes is currently uncertain.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBackground: A subgroup of IPF patients can meet IPAF criteria (features suggesting an underlying autoimmune process without fulfilling established criteria for a CTD). This study was aimed to evaluate whether IPAF/IPF patients compared to IPF patients differ in clinical profile, prognosis and disease course.
Methods: This is a retrospective, single center, case-control study.
Objective: To evaluate the potential role of K12 (SSK12) in controlling febrile flares in patients with Periodic Fever, Aphthous stomatitis, Pharyngitis, and cervical Adenitis (PFAPA) syndrome. Further aims were to assess the impact of SSK12 on (i) flare duration, (ii) variation in the degree of the highest body temperature during flares, (iii) steroid-sparing effect, and (iv) change of PFAPA accompanying symptoms before and after SSK12 introduction.
Patients And Methods: The medical charts from 85 pediatric patients with PFAPA syndrome (49 males and 36 females) enrolled in the AIDA registry and treated with SSK12 for a median period of 6.
Anti-RuvBL1/2 autoantibodies have recently been detected in patients with systemic sclerosis (SSc) and scleromyositis overlap syndromes. These autoantibodies exhibit a distinct speckled pattern in an indirect immunofluorescent assay on Hep-2 cells. We report the case of a 48 year old man with facial changes, Raynaud's phenomenon, puffy fingers, and muscle pain.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBackground: In patients affected by connective tissue diseases (CTDs), the identification of wide autoantibody profiles may prove useful in early diagnosis, in the evaluation of prognosis (risk stratification), and in predicting response to therapy. The aim of the present study was to evaluate the utility of multiparametric autoantibody analysis performed by a new fully automated particle-based multi-analyte technology (PMAT) digital system in a large multicenter cohort of CTD patients and controls.
Methods: Serum samples from 787 patients with CTD (166 systemic lupus erythematosus; 133 systemic sclerosis; 279 Sjögren's syndrome; 106 idiopathic inflammatory myopathies; 103 undifferentiated CTD), 339 patients with other disorders (disease controls) (118 infectious diseases, 110 organ-specific autoimmune diseases, 111 other rheumatic diseases), and 121 healthy subjects were collected in 13 rheumatologic centers of the FIRMA group.