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This report provides pictorial evidence that high-resolution gray scale sonography with a PD technique is a real-time and noninvasive imaging technique that can be used as an adjunct to the clinical evaluation in assessing psoriatic disease.

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To determine the prevalence of fibromyalgia (FM) in patients with ankylosing spondylitis (AS) or psoriatic arthritis (PsA) characterized by axial involvement (axial-PsA), and to assess the discriminative ability of different versions of the Ankylosing Spondylitis Disease Activity Score (ASDAS) and the Bath Ankylosing Spondylitis Activity Disease Activity Index (BASDAI) in measuring disease activity in three different cohorts of patients with axial spondyloarthritis (axial-SpA), FM, or both (axial-SpA + FM), this study was divided into two phases: (1) 402 patients with definite AS or axial-PsA were examined to diagnose FM and estimate its prevalence; and (2) 419 patients (111 with axial-SpA, 248 with FM, and 60 with aSpA + FM) were evaluated using the different versions of the ASDAS and BASDAI to assess the effect on disease activity. The overall prevalence of FM in the axial-SpA population was 14.9 %, significantly higher among women (p < 0.0001); the estimated prevalence in AS was 12.7 % and in axial-PsA was 17.2 %. Although the BASDAI scores correlated with those of ASDAS-C-reactive protein (CRP) and ASDAS-erythrocyte sedimentation rate (ESR) (p < 0.0001), only ASDAS had sufficient discriminatory ability to assess disease activity. The addition of only one marker of inflammation led to an adequate level of significance (ASDAS-CRP, p = 0.0018; ASDAS-ESR, p = 0.003). FM is common in axial-SpA and more prevalent in female patients. Our findings suggest that ASDAS is better than BASDAI in distinguishing patients with disease activity from those with functional impairment. The use of ASDAS may be very useful in clinical practice as it allows treating patients with the most appropriate therapy.

The role of CSURI was confirmed in detecting scleroderma patients with a significantly high risk of developing digital ulcers within the first 3 months from NVC evaluation. CSURI is the only method validated to predict the appearance of digital ulcers and its introduction into routine clinical practice might help optimise the therapeutic strategy of these harmful SSc complications.

Objective. To investigate predictors of response, remission, low disease activity, damage, and drug discontinuation in patients with systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE) who were treated with belimumab.Methods. In this retrospective study of a multicenter cohort of SLE patients who received intravenous belimumab, the proportion of patients who achieved remission, low disease activity, and treatment response according to the SLE Responder Index 4 (SRI-4) was determined, and the Systemic Lupus International Collaborating Clinics/American College of Rheumatology Damage Index (SDI) was used to score disease damage yearly over the follow-up. Predictors of outcomes were analyzed by multivariate logistic regression with the results expressed as odds ratios (ORs) and 95% confidence intervals (95% CIs).Results. The study included 466 patients with active SLE from 24 Italian centers, with a median follow-up period of 18 months (range 1-60 months). An SRI-4 response was achieved by 49.2%, 61.3%, 69.7%, 69.6%, and 66.7% of patients at 6, 12, 24, 36, and 48 months, respectively. Baseline predictors of response at 6 months included a score of ≥10 on the SLE Disease Activity Index 2000 (SLEDAI-2K) (OR 3.14 [95% CI 2.033-4.860]) and a disease duration of ≤2 years . Baseline predictors of response at 12 months included a score of ≥10 on the SLEDAI-2K (OR 3.48 [95% CI 2.004-6.025]) and an SDI score of 0 (OR 1.74 [95% CI 1.036-2.923]). Baseline predictors of response at 24 months included a score of ≥10 on the SLEDAI-2K (OR 4.25 [95% CI 2.018-8.940]) and a disease duration of ≤2 years (OR 3.79 [95% CI 1.039-13.52]). Baseline predictors of response at 36 months included a score of ≥10 on the SLEDAI-2K ) and baseline status of current smoker (OR 0.19 [95% CI 0.039-0.69]). Patients who were in remission for ≥25% of the follow-up period (44.3%) or who had low disease activity for ≥50% of the follow-up period (66.1%) accrued significantly less damage (P = 0.046 and P = 0.007). A baseline SDI score of 0 was an independent predictor of achieving low disease activity in ≥50% of the follow-up period and remission in ≥25% of the follow-up period. Our findings suggest that the lower the baseline damage, the greater the probability of achieving remission over the course of ≥25% of the follow-up. Further, there was a negative association between the number of flares reported prior to belimumab initiation and the frequency of belimumab discontinuation due to inefficacy (P = 0.009).Conclusion. In patients with active SLE and low damage at baseline, treatment with belimumab early in the disease may lead to favorable outcomes in a real-life setting.

Capillaroscopy is an essential imaging technique used in the study of microcirculation and one of the best diagnostic tools for the early detection of systemic sclerosis and related conditions. However, despite the increasing interest in capillary microscopy, there is still a surprising discrepancy between its potential application and its still limited use in rheumatological practice. This contrast is really surprising because few diagnostic techniques can combine all the positive features typical of capillaroscopy (low cost, uninvasiveness, repeatability, high sensitivity, good specificity, easy interpretation of results). The lack of guidelines and recommendations concerning the right way to carry out a correct capillaroscopic examination and the interpretation of the most relevant capillaroscopic abnormalities may represent one of the major drawbacks for its widespread use. Discussion about controversies on this topic should be encouraged, leading to a progressive development of capillaroscopy as a routine investigation in rheumatology.