Extra-articular manifestations in 587 Italian patients with rheumatoid arthritis.

The aim of the study was to evaluate the frequency of extra-articular manifestations (EAMs) of rheumatoid arthritis (RA) in a series of patients from nine Italian rheumatology clinics. A total of 587 patients underwent direct questioning, complete physical evaluation, and review of medical records and laboratory data. The relationships between EAMs and the eosinophilic count, IgM rheumatoid factor (RF), and antinuclear antibodies (ANA) were studied.

Bisphosphonate therapy of reflex sympathetic dystrophy syndrome.

Objective: The reflex sympathetic dystrophy syndrome (RSDS) is a painful limb disorder, for which a consistently effective treatment has not yet been identified. The disease is associated with increased bone resorption and patchy osteoporosis, which might benefit from treatment with bisphosphonates, powerful inhibitors of bone resorption.

Methods: Twenty patients with RSDS of foot and hand, were randomly assigned to blind administration of either alendronate intravenously (Istituto Gentili, Pisa, Italy) 7.

Clinical differences between ANA/anti-ENA positive or negative primary Sjögren's syndrome.

Fifty female patients with primary Sjögren's syndrome diagnosed according to the Copenhagen criteria were evaluated for both glandular and extraglandular involvement. They were divided into two groups based on the presence or absence of antinuclear and anti-ENA antibodies (ANA/anti-ENA). ANA/anti-ENA negative patients presented with milder and later glandular and extraglandular disease and required less frequent corticosteroid treatment.

Salivary gland echography in primary and secondary Sjögren's syndrome.

A series of different ultrasonographic abnormalities detected by salivary gland echography (SGE) were investigated for their discriminant power for Sjögren's syndrome (SS) in 53 patients with either primary SS (n = 27) or secondary SS (n = 26), as well as in 90 controls. Among the controls, 26 suffered from dry mouth and/or recurrent or persistent swelling of at least one parotid or submandibular gland due to other selected disorders, while 64 were healthy, asymptomatic subjects. Mild, evident or gross inhomogeneous parenchymal patterns were the only variables selected by stepwise discriminant analysis, when comparing patients to controls.

[Osteosclerotic micromolecular plasmacytoma].

We describe a patient with a k light-chain myeloma revealed by an apparently solitary mixed lytic and sclerotic rib lesion. This rare manifestation may be explained by a still balanced bone remodeling in the early phases of the disease.