[Laboratory and instrumental clinical study of 150 patients with psoriatic arthritis]. / Studio clinico laboratoristico e strumentale su 150 pazienti affetti da artrite psoriasica.

The study included a 5-year-follow-up. We noticed that our data did not agree with the data in literature as regards the distribution percentage of the various articular subsets. It was pointed out that the distribution percentage of some particular clinical subsets of the disease (for example the symmetrical polyarticular subset and the spondylitic and/or sacro-iliac subset) were linked to sex. The study of the bio-humoral parameters showed that the most significant data was the particular clinical and radiological severity of PA in the patients with high IgA levels. Radiological findings showed the involvement of the sterno-clavicular and manubriosternal joints by osteoproduction and/or erosive manifestations, which was associated with a particular clinical severity of the disease. Eventually, our study revealed a significant relationship between psycho-physical stress and articular and/or cutaneous manifestations of the disease. This data seems to confirm the recent neuro-immunological studies hypothesizing a likely role of stress and subsequent depression in the ethiopathogenesis of rheumatic diseases caused by an immune imbalance.

[Efficacy and tolerability of iloprost in the treatment of digital vasculitis secondary to connective tissue diseases]. / Efficacia e tollerabilità dell'iloprost nel trattamento di vasculiti digitali secondarie a connettiviti.

The authors have evaluated the effects of long-term treatment of digital vasculitis secondary to various types of connective tissue disease, Systemic Lupus Erythematosus (SLE), Progressive Systemic Sclerosis (PSS), Sjögren's Syndrome (SS), using iloprost. The drug has proven to be effective both in reducing pain and clinical symptoms induced by vasospastic phenomena, as well as in promoting the healing of serious acral ischemic lesions. In the patient with LES, clinical modifications of the local vasculitic phenomena have been associated with a contemporaneous remission of the disease. The persistence of the drug's clinical effects even after suspension of treatment, instrumental and biohumoral changes and concomitant systemic effects on the disease lead to the conclusion that the drug's effect, is not merely due its vasodilating action and its ability to interfere with the coagulative process, but rather must be sought within the context of a morpho-structural repair of the microcirculation.