Successful treatment of severe Behçet's disease with infliximab in an Italian Olympic athlete.

An Italian Olympic athlete with a severe form of Behçet's disease was given infliximab. He had oral aphthosis, papulopustular and follicular lesions, and a bilateral cystoid macular edema. After the first 3 infusions, the mucocutaneous lesions disappeared and cystoid macular edema was much improved.

Diffuse idiopathic skeletal hyperostosis may give the typical postural abnormalities of advanced ankylosing spondylitis.

Objectives: To describe a case-series of patients who presented with the typical postural abnormalities of long-standing advanced ankylosing spondylitis (AS) but were instead found to suffer from diffuse idiopathic skeletal hyperostosis (DISH).

Methods: We enrolled consecutive patients who showed postural abnormalities, which at first suggested to us the diagnosis of long-standing advanced AS, although the diagnostic process led us to the correct diagnosis of DISH. Each patient had a complete physical examination and radiographs of the spine and pelvis, and was investigated for HLA-B27 locus typing.

Management issues with elderly-onset rheumatoid arthritis: an update.

Elderly-onset rheumatoid arthritis (EORA) is defined as rheumatoid arthritis (RA) starting at >60 years of age. EORA is characterised by a lower female/male ratio compared with RA in younger patients and it more frequently has an acute onset accompanied by constitutional symptoms. Two incompletely overlapping subsets of RA have been recognised: one exhibits the classical RA clinical picture while the other has a polymyalgia rheumatica-like appearance, characterised by shoulder involvement, absence of rheumatoid factor and, usually, by a nonerosive course.

[Sodium gold thiosulfate therapy: an open, viewed, multicenter trial in rheumatoid arthritis patients followed for two years].

Objective: To evaluate if parenteral gold-therapy with Sodium gold thiosulfate is effective and safe for the treatment of rheumatoid arthritis we began an open, multicenter trial.

Methods: 126 rheumatoid arthritis patients were treated with Sodium gold thiosulfate for two years. Efficacy, quality of life, progression of joint damage, inflammatory parameters and side effects were evaluated.