Neutrophil extracellular traps release in gout and pseudogout depends on the number of crystals regardless of leukocyte count.

Objectives: Microcrystal-induced arthritis is still an unresolved paradigm for medicine. Overt inflammation may be absent even when crystals occur in SF. Recently, the production of neutrophil extracellular traps (NETs) embedding MSU crystals has been proposed as a possible mechanism of the auto-resolution of the inflammatory phase during gout.

Serum IFI16 and anti-IFI16 antibodies in psoriatic arthritis.

Nuclear interferon-inducible protein 16 (IFI16) and anti-IFI16 antibodies have been detected in subjects with several rheumatic diseases, often correlating with disease severity, and in this study we investigated their prevalence and clinical associations in psoriatic arthritis (PsA) compared to psoriasis (Pso). We tested sera and synovial fluids of patients with PsA for IFI16 protein levels by capture enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) and for anti-IFI16 immunoglobulin (Ig)G and IgA by ELISA, protein radio-immunoprecipitation and immunoprecipitation-Western blot of IgG. Sera from patients with Pso and healthy subjects were used as controls, and in a subgroup of patients with PsA we also studied sera after treatment with etanercept.

Serum immunoglobulin D levels in patients with Behçet's disease according to different clinical manifestations.

Objectives: Behçet's disease (BD) is an autoinflammatory disorders mainly characterised by recurrent oral aphthosis, genital ulcers, and uveitis. The involvement of immunoglobulin D (IgD) in BD physiopathology is still unclear. The aim of our study was to assess the role of IgD in BD by comparing circulating levels of IgD in a cohort of BD patients and healthy controls (HC), as well as by correlating IgD levels with BD activity and different clinical presentations.

Correlation of Serum Amyloid-A Levels, Clinical Manifestations, Treatment, and Disease Activity in Patients with Behçet's Disease.

Background: Behçet's disease (BD) is an inflammatory disorder potentially leading to life- and sight-threatening complications. No laboratory marker correlating with disease activity or predicting the occurrence of disease manifestations is currently available.

Objectives: To determine an association between serum amyloid-A (SAA) levels and disease activity via the BD Current Activity Form (BDCAF), to evaluate disease activity in relation to different SAA thresholds, to examine the association between single organ involvement and the overall major organ involvement with different SAA thresholds, and to assess the influence of biologic therapy on SAA levels.

Systemic inflammation as a novel QT-prolonging risk factor in patients with torsades de pointes.

Objective: Increasing evidence indicates systemic inflammation as a new potential cause of acquired long QT syndrome (LQTS), via cytokine-mediated changes in cardiomyocyte ion channels. Torsade de pointes (TdP) is a life-threatening polymorphic ventricular tachycardia occurring in patients with LQTS, usually when multiple QT-prolonging factors are simultaneously present. Since classical risk factors cannot fully explain TdP events in a number of patients, we hypothesised that systemic inflammation may represent a currently overlooked risk factor contributing to TdP development in the general population.

The diagnostic evaluation of patients with a suspected hereditary periodic fever syndrome: experience from a referral center in Italy.

The study aims are to describe the activity of our Unit on the diagnostics of monogenic autoinflammatory diseases (AIDs), and to apply the clinical classification criteria for periodic fevers from the Eurofever Registry to our cohort of patients, thus evaluating their usefulness in the real life. We retrospectively analyzed data from patients referring to our Center for recurrent fever attacks, and undergoing genetic analysis between April 2014 and July 2016, and we applied the classification criteria to both genetically positive and -negative patients. We visited 195 patients (101 females, 94 males); 126 (64.

Marked QTc Prolongation and Torsades de pointes in Patients with Chronic Inflammatory Arthritis.

Mounting evidence indicates that in chronic inflammatory arthritis (CIA), QTc prolongation is frequent and correlates with systemic inflammatory activation. Notably, basic studies demonstrated that inflammatory cytokines induce profound changes in potassium and calcium channels resulting in a prolonging effect on cardiomyocyte action potential duration, thus on the QT interval on the electrocardiogram. Moreover, it has been demonstrated that in rheumatoid arthritis (RA) patients, the risk of sudden cardiac death is significantly increased when compared to non-RA subjects.

Circulating levels of adiponectin, resistin, and visfatin after mud-bath therapy in patients with bilateral knee osteoarthritis.

Adipocytokines, including adiponectin, resistin, and visfatin may play an important role in the pathophysiology of osteoarthritis (OA). Spa therapy is one of the most commonly used non-pharmacological approaches for OA, but its mechanisms of action are not completely known. The aim of the present study was to assess whether a cycle of mud-bath therapy (MBT) influences the serum levels of adiponectin, resistin, and visfatin in patients with knee OA.

Serum amyloid-A in Behçet's disease.

Serum amyloid-A (SAA) is an acute phase protein, synthesized by the liver and previously investigated as a marker of disease activity in many rheumatologic disorders. Its significance in Behçet’s disease (BD), a chronic inflammatory disorder at the crossroad between autoimmune and autoinflammatory syndromes, is still unraveled. Our aim was to assess the role of SAA levels as a potential marker of disease activity in patients with BD.

Anti-Ro/SSA-associated corrected QT interval prolongation in adults: the role of antibody level and specificity.

Objective: Recent evidence suggests that anti-Ro/SSA antibodies, strongly associated with the development of congenital heart block, may also be arrhythmogenic for the adult heart. In fact, anti-Ro/SSA-positive patients with connective tissue disease (CTD) frequently display corrected QT (QTc) prolongation associated with an increase in ventricular arrhythmias. However, QTc prolongation prevalence markedly differs throughout the studies (10-60%), but the reason why is not yet clear.

Prevalence of anti-histone antibodies, their clinical significance and correlation with other autoantibodies in a cohort of Italian scleroderma patients.

Purpose: The aim of our study was to determine the prevalence, clinical significance of antibodies to individual histone components and to evaluate their correlation with other autoantibody specificities in a cohort of Italian SSc patients. Some authors, demonstrated high prevalence of anti-histone antibodies in Italian SSc patients, associated with cardiac and renal involvement, suggesting a prognostic value of these autoantibodies; however, these data need to be confirmed.

Methods: Serum from 112 adult SSc patients, classified as diffuse (dc) and limited cutaneous (lc) SSc subsets were analyzed for autoantibodies by indirect immunofluorescence, fluoroenzyme immunoassay and enzyme immunoassay.

Evaluation of the effect of Bosentan treatment on proinflammatory cytokine serum levels in patients affected by Systemic Sclerosis.

Systemic sclerosis (SSc) is a connective tissue disease characterized by vascular and fibrotic changes in the skin and in internal organs. Endothelin-1 (ET-1) is a peptide that has a role in promoting both vascular injury and the fibrotic process in SSc; indeed, patients with systemic sclerosis have higher levels of ET-1 compared with healthy subjects. Moreover, ET-1 enhances expression of pro-inflammatory cytokines in animal model.

Anti-cofactor autoantibodies in systemic lupus erythematosus: prevalence, clinical and HLA class II associations.

The aim of our study was to evaluate the clinical and HLA-class II allele associations of some anti-cofactor antibodies in a homogeneous group of European patients with SLE. One hundred thirty-six patients with SLE, fulfilling four or more of the ACR 1997 revised criteria for the classification of the disease, coming from 7 European countries, were enrolled consecutively. Anti-prothrombin (anti-PT), anti-annexin V (anti-AnnV), anti-protein C (anti-Cprot) and anti-protein S (anti-Sprot) were determined by using commercial ELISA kits.

Low serum level of COMP, a cartilage turnover marker, predicts rapid and high ACR70 response to adalimumab therapy in rheumatoid arthritis.

The aim of this study was to evaluate serum biomarkers, used in clinical routine, to predict the American College of Rheumatology (ACR) response to long-term anti-TNF alpha treatment (adalimumab). Sera from 29 consecutive rheumatoid arthritis patients were analysed for anti-cyclic citrullinated peptide (anti-CCP), cartilage oligomeric matrix protein (COMP) and IgM and IgA RFs (class-specific rheumatoid factors) at the start of treatment with adalimumab and after 3, 6 and 12 months. The response to the therapy was evaluated by ACR 20, 50, 70 and by DAS 28 scores.

Systemic lupus erythematosus in Europe at the change of the millennium: lessons from the "Euro-Lupus Project".

The "Euro-Lupus Cohort" is composed by 1000 patients with systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE) that have been followed prospectively since 1991. These patients have been gathered by a European consortium--the "Euro-Lupus Project Group". This consortium was originated as part of the network promoted by the "European Working Party on SLE", a working group created in 1990 in order to promote research in Europe on the different problems related to this disease.

Lessons from the "Euro-Lupus Cohort".

The "Euro-Lupus Cohort" is composed by 1,000 patients with systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE) that have been followed prospectively since 1991. These patients have been gathered by a European consortium - the "Euro-Lupus Project Group". This consortium was originated as part of the network promoted by the "European Working Party on SLE", a working group created in 1990 in order to promote research in Europe on the different problems related to this disease.

Comparison of different methods for the detection of anti-Ro/SSA antibodies in connective tissue diseases.

Objective: To compare the performance characteristics of various tests commonly used to detect anti-SSA/Ro autoantibodies in the sera of patients affected by connective tissue diseases (CTD).

Methods: Indirect immunofluorescence (IIF) with HEp-2000 as substrate (ImmunoConcepts, USA), Ouchterlony's double immunodiffusion (ID) (home made), commercial Varelisa ReCombi anti-Ro kit (Pharmacia & Upjohn, Germany), research kits (60 kDa and 52 kDa) with human recombinant antigens (Pharmacia & Upjohn, Germany) and a commercial western blot (WB) kit (MarDx, USA) were evaluated in our study. Sixty-four sera from patients affected by CTD were tested: 15 had primary Sjögren's syndrome (SS), 34 only had sicca syndrome, and 15 had systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE).