Exergaming as an Additional Tool in Rehabilitation of Young Patients with Rheumatoid Arthritis: A Pilot Randomized Controlled Trial.

To assess the effectiveness of home videogame-based exercise (exergaming) as an additional rehabilitative tool in young patients with rheumatoid arthritis (RA). After a baseline (T0) evaluation, 40 RA inpatients (18-35 years of age) underwent both a 4-week-lasting traditional rehabilitation program and a training by Nintendo Wii-Fit™ videogame system. At discharge (T1), subjects were randomly assigned (1:1) to two groups: Group A (experimental group), including subjects who continued Wii-Fit training at home for additional 8 weeks, and Group B (control group), including subjects maintaining their habitual activity during the 8-week follow-up (T2).

Anti-interleukin-1 treatment in patients with rheumatoid arthritis and type 2 diabetes (TRACK): A multicentre, open-label, randomised controlled trial.

Background: The inflammatory contribution to type 2 diabetes (T2D) has suggested new therapeutic targets using biologic drugs designed for rheumatoid arthritis (RA). On this basis, we aimed at investigating whether interleukin-1 (IL-1) inhibition with anakinra, a recombinant human IL-1 receptor antagonist, could improve both glycaemic and inflammatory parameters in participants with RA and T2D compared with tumour necrosis factor (TNF) inhibitors (TNFis).

Methods And Findings: This study, designed as a multicentre, open-label, randomised controlled trial, enrolled participants, followed up for 6 months, with RA and T2D in 12 Italian rheumatologic units between 2013 and 2016.

Low-Dose Aspirin as Primary Prophylaxis for Cardiovascular Events in Rheumatoid Arthritis: An Italian Multicentre Retrospective Study.

Objective: To investigate the role of acetylsalicylic acid (ASA) in reducing the incidence of cardiovascular (CV) events in an Italian multicentre rheumatoid arthritis (RA) inception cohort.

Methods: The clinical charts of RA patients consecutively admitted to 4 Italian centres for their 1 visit from November 1, 2000, to December 31, 2015, and followed up till December 2016 were retrospectively investigated for the incidence of CV events. Patients were subdivided into two groups, namely, ASA- and non-ASA-treated groups.

Low mortality rate in Italian rheumatoid arthritis patients from a tertiary center: putative implication of a low anti-carbamylated protein antibodies prevalence.

Background And Objective: Anti-carbamylated protein antibodies (anti-CarP Ab) represent a novel kind of autoantibodies specificity detectable in the sera of patients with rheumatoid arthritis (RA). They have been recently reported to be associated with increased mortality in Spanish patients with RA. The aim of our study was to compare the incidence mortality rates (IMRs) detected in RA patients from a tertiary Italian center with those reported in other European tertiary centers and to evaluate the putative role of anti-CarP Ab in modulating the low IMR detected in our patients.

Mortality in Italian patients with rheumatoid arthritis: evidence for a low mortality rate from cancer and infections in patients followed up at a tertiary center.

Objectives: Mortality in patients with rheumatoid arthritis (RA) has never been investigated in Italy. This study is devoted to investigating all the distinct causes of mortality in Italian RA patients.

Methods: Clinical charts of patients consecutively admitted to an Italian tertiary center, from January 1, 2008 to December 31, 2014, were reviewed.

The conversion rate of tuberculosis screening tests during biological therapies in patients with rheumatoid arthritis.

Screening for active tuberculosis (TB) and latent TB infection (LTBI) is mandatory to the initiation of biological therapy in patients with rheumatic diseases. To determine the prevalence of LTBI in patients with rheumatoid arthritis before treatment with biological therapy (anti-TNF, abatacept, and tocilizumab) and the rate of TB conversion during treatment in rheumatoid arthritis (RA) patients, we evaluated the file of 275 patients with RA treated with biological agents. We considered patients with negative baseline TB screening (tuberculin skin test (TST); quantiferon TB gold in tube (QFT-GIT); chest x-ray) and with rescreening for a TB assay every year.

Early systemic sclerosis: serum profiling of factors involved in endothelial, T-cell, and fibroblast interplay is marked by elevated interleukin-33 levels.

Purpose: To assess the serum profile of factors involved in endothelial, T-cell, and fibroblast interplay in patients with Raynaud's phenomenon (RP) associated with nailfold vodeocapillaroscopy (NVC) scleroderma findings and/or systemic sclerosis (SSc) marker autoantibodies, recently labeled as early SSc patients.

Methods: Serum levels of soluble intercellular adhesion molecule-1 (sICAM-1), soluble vascular adhesion molecule-1 (sVCAM-1), CCL2, CXCL8, IL-13, IL-33, and transforming growth factor-β (TGF-β) were measured in 24 early SSc patients, 48 definite SSc patients, and 24 osteoarthritis/fibromyalgia controls by multiplex suspension immunoassay. All SSc patients were investigated for the presence/absence of preclinical and clinical organ involvement, SSc marker autoantibodies, and NVC abnormalities.

Early systemic sclerosis: short-term disease evolution and factors predicting the development of new manifestations of organ involvement.

Introduction: We investigated early systemic sclerosis (SSc) (that is, Raynaud's phenomenon with SSc marker autoantibodies and/or typical capillaroscopic findings and no manifestations other than puffy fingers or arthritis) versus undifferentiated connective tissue disease (UCTD) to identify predictors of short-term disease evolution.

Methods: Thirty-nine early SSc and 37 UCTD patients were investigated. At baseline, all patients underwent clinical evaluation, B-mode echocardiography, lung function tests and esophageal manometry to detect preclinical alterations of internal organs, and were re-assessed every year.