Mauro Galeazzi

University of Siena | UNISI · section of rheumatology

The Lunar Environment heliospheric X-ray Imager (LEXI) is a wide field-of-view soft X-ray telescope developed to study solar wind-magnetosphere coupling. LEXI is part of the Blue Ghost 1 mission comprised of 10 payloads to be deployed on the lunar surface. LEXI monitors the dayside magnetopause position and shape as a function of time by observing...

Objectives: Fibromyalgia (FM), the most frequently encountered cause of widespread musculoskeletal pain, affects an estimated 2% of the general Italian population. However, it is not a homogeneous clinical entity, and a number of interacting factors can influence patient prognosis and the outcomes of standardised treatment programmes. Registries a...

Background SIRENA is an Italian, prospective Registry in Spondyloarthritis (SpA) patients, naïve to conventional, targeted and biological DMARDs. Patients are diagnosed, newly or confirmed, according to ASAS criteria and classified in subjects with predominant axial (AX ) or with mainly peripheral manifestations (PER ). Objectives To compare des...

Objective: To investigate risk factors for damage development in a prospective inception cohort of early diagnosed SLE patients. Methods: The Early Lupus Project recruited an inception cohort of patients within 12 months of SLE classification (1997 ACR criteria). At enrolment and every 6 months thereafter, the SLICC/ACR Damage Index was recorded...

Background AbataCepT In rOutiNe clinical practice (ACTION; NCT02109666) was a 2-year international observational study of patients with moderate to severe rheumatoid arthritis. Methods Baseline characteristics, abatacept retention rates, and clinical outcomes were compared by treatment line in the Austrian cohort of ACTION. Results Of 100 patient...

Biological drugs have revolutionised the treatment of rheumatic diseases, and the recent expiry of the patents for many biological agents has generated considerable interest among pharmaceutical companies and regulatory agencies, and led to the marketing of highly similar, low-cost versions known as biosimilars. The increasing trend of switching pa...

Objectives: Good drug survival of tumour necrosis factor inhibitors (TNFi) has been shown in axial spondyloarthritis (axSpA) patients treated in real-life setting. However, few studies have compared drug survival of the first TNF inhibitor between radiographic axSpA (r-axSpA) and non-radiographic axSpA (nr-axSpA) patients in real-world clinical pr...

Immune checkpoints are small molecules expressed by immune cells that play critical roles in maintaining immune homeostasis. Immune checkpoint inhibitors (ICPIs) are new cancer drugs that target self-tolerance pathways exploited by tumors to escape immune destruction, such as cytotoxic T-lymphocyte antigen 4 (CTLA-4) and programmed cell death 1 (PD...

Objectives: Recently, research has been focused on the identification of predictors of response to treatment in patients with active psoriatic arthritis (PsA). The objective of this study was to develop a model to predict the clinical response at 6 months in patients with PsA starting the anti-tumour necrosis factor-α golimumab. Methods: This pr...

Studies on last genetic and epigenetic predisposition to APS are summarized. It is well known that genetic predisposition is in HLA system (DR4 and DRw53) and that lupus anticoagulant (LA) and anticardiolipin antibodies (aCL) are both associated with the same HLA antigens. Other genes, outside the MHC, give their contribution to the development of...

The article listed above was initially published with incorrect copyright information. Upon publication of this Correction, the copyright of this article changed to “The Author(s)”. The original article has been corrected.

Object Active sacroiliitis based on magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) without intravenous (I.V.) contrast material injection is considered sufficient for the diagnosis of spondyloarthritis (SpA), according to the Assessment of SpondyloArthritis International Society (ASAS) criteria. This work shows the added value of administering I.V. contrast mate...

Objectives: To assess the efficacy of monoclonal anti-tumour necrosis factor (TNF)-α agents in patients with anterior uveitis (AU) in terms of decrease of recurrences, variation of visual acuity and steroid sparing effect and to identify any demographic, clinical or therapeutic variables associated with a sustained response to monoclonal TNF-α inh...

Objectives Evaluate abatacept retention over 2 years in the AbataCepT In rOutiNe clinical practice (ACTION) study. Method ACTION was an international, observational study of patients with moderate-to-severe rheumatoid arthritis (RA) who initiated intravenous abatacept. Crude abatacept retention rates over 2 years were estimated using Kaplan–Meier...

Pregnancy requires a special management in women with inflammatory rheumatic diseases (RDs), with the aim of controlling maternal disease activity and avoiding fetal complications. Despite the heterogeneous course of RDs during pregnancy, their impact on pregnancy largely relates to the extent of active inflammation at the time of conception. There...

Objectives: To establish the cut-off points for disease severity states of two self-administered questionnaires (the revised version of the Fibromyalgia-Impact Questionnaire [FIQR] and the Fibromyalgia Assessment Status [FAS]) designed for the evaluation of multidimensional aspects of fibromyalgia (FM). Methods: In this cross-sectional study, co...

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 patient...

In the original version of this article the author name Gerardo Di Scala was originally presented incorrectly as 'Di Scala Gerardo'; this has been corrected in this article.

Purpose: To identify factors associated with sustained response to interleukin (IL)-1 inhibition among demographic, clinical and therapeutic data in patients with Behçet disease (BD). Methods: BD patients treated with anakinra or canakinumab were enrolled. Patients were divided into two groups according to the clinical response: group 1 included su...

Objectives: Adipokines play an important role in the pathophysiology of rheumatoid arthritis (RA), provide a link between the disease and overweight, contributing to explain the enhanced cardiovascular (CV) risk and influence the response to disease-modifying anti-rheumatic drugs. The aim of this study was to determine the possible effects of intr...

To compare the efficacy of adalimumab (ADA) and infliximab (IFX) in patients with non-infectious intermediate uveitis, posterior uveitis, and panuveitis. Demographic, clinical, instrumental, and therapeutic data from patients enrolled were collected at the start of treatment, at 12-month follow-up, and at the last follow-up assessment. One hundred...

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 dise...

Background: Clinical research is needed to identify patients with axial spondyloarthritis (axSpA) who are more likely to be responsive to interleukin (IL)-17 inhibition. Objectives: To evaluate short-term efficacy of secukinumab in the management of axSpA. Methods: Twenty-one patients (7 males, 14 females) with axSpA were consecutively treated...

Both heliophysics and planetary physics seek to understand the complex nature of the solar wind’s interaction with solar system obstacles like Earth’s magnetosphere, the ionospheres of Venus and Mars, and comets. Studies with this objective are frequently conducted with the help of single or multipoint in situ electromagnetic field and particle obs...

Discoid lupus erythematosus (DLE) is a chronic dermatological disease that can lead to scarring, alopecia and dyspigmentation, if not properly treated. Actually, no drugs are specifically approved for the treatment of CLE, although the first-line therapy usually consists of photoprotection associated to topical or oral steroids, topical calcineurin...

We present results from the Hitomi X-ray observation of a young composite-type supernova remnant (SNR) G21.5-0.9, whose emission is dominated by the pulsar wind nebula (PWN) contribution. The X-ray spectra in the 0.8-80 keV range obtained with the Soft X-ray Spectrometer (SXS), Soft X-ray Imager, and Hard X-ray Imager (HXI) show a significant break...

Background Preventing organ damage is a major challenge in Systemic Lupus Erythematosus (SLE). Objectives To evaluate factors associated with development of damage in a prospectively followed cohort of early diagnosed SLE patients. Methods The Early Lupus Project¹ encompasses 9 Italian centres recruiting, from the 1 st January 2012, an inception...

Background Alkaptonuria (AKU) is an ultra-rare inborn error of metabolism due to a deficient activity of homogentisate 1,2-dioxygenase. Patients suffer from a severe arthropathy. Evidence was provided on the presence of a secondary serum amyloid A (SAA)-based amyloidosis[.¹Here a complete microscopic and ultrastructural analysis of different AKU ti...

Background To date, a few studies have reported the long-term efficacy of Infliximab (IFX) in Behçet’s disease (BD)-related uveitis.1,2 Nevertheless, it is known that TNF-α inhibitor drugs may lose their efficacy over time due to the formation of anti-drug antibodies, causing secondary failure and influencing the retention rate of these agents.³ In...

Background The targeted pharmacodelivery of cytokines by means of antibody-fusion proteins aims at selective accumulation of the active compound at the site of disease while sparing healthy tissues. Dekavil (F8IL10) is a fully human fusion protein composed of the vascular targeting antibody F8 fused to the cytokine interleukin-10. A phase 1 dose es...

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 in the clinical practice. Objectives To search for a correlation between serum amyloid-A...

Background In recent times IL-1 inhibition has been proposed as an intriguing therapeutic option in Behçet disease (BD) patients with multi-drug resistant manifestations.¹ However, despite the good clinical results obtained during the last years, cases of BD nonresponsive to anakinra (ANA) and canakinumab (CAN) have also been identified. This evide...

Background The pathogenesis of Ochronosis, the musculoskeletal manifestation of alcaptonuria (AKU) is still unclear. The joint damage usually described is similar to osteoarthritis, but in some cases the spinal involvement could resemble spondiloarthritis (SpA). These findings suggest that inflammatory changes could be prevalent in some cases while...

Background Good survival rates of TNF inhibitors (TNFi) have been shown in patients affected with axial Spondyloarthritis (axSpA) treated in a real-life setting, irrespective of administered anti-TNF agent.¹ Although the use of these drugs in patients with non radiographic axSpA (nr-axSpA) remains topic of debate,² several RCTs support their employ...

Objective To describe the clinical and serological features of a prospectively followed cohort of early diagnosed systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE) patients during a one-year follow-up period. Methods SLE patients with disease duration less than 12 months were consecutively enrolled in a multicentre, prospective study. At study entry and then eve...

The primary aim of the study was to evaluate the efficacy of tumor necrosis factor (TNF)-α blockers adalimumab (ADA) and infliximab (IFX) in refractory sight-threatening retinal vasculitis (RV) during a 12-month follow-up period. Secondary aims were to evaluate (i) any impact of concomitant conventional disease-modifying anti-rheumatic drugs (cDMAR...

A few studies have reported the safety profile of interleukin (IL)-1 blockers from real life. The aim of this study is to describe anakinra (ANA) and canakinumab (CAN) safety profile in children and adults, based on data from a real-life setting. Demographic, clinical, and therapeutic data from patients treated with ANA and CAN were retrospectively...

Selective cyclooxigenase (COX)-2 inhibitors were developed to prevent the adverse effects related to tNSAIDs, generally used for the treatment of osteoarthritis (OA). VA692, a new hydroxyetyl selective COX-2 inhibitor, showed anti-inflammatory, anti-nociceptive and chondroprotective properties. Pharmacoproteomics is a powerful tool for the study of...

To identify clinical variables capable of predicting long-term treatment duration of TNF-α inhibition in patients with Behçet’s disease (BD)-related uveitis. Demographic, clinical, and therapeutic data were retrospectively collected from BD patients treated with the tumor necrosis factor (TNF)-α blockers infliximab and adalimumab. Patients still co...

The aim of the present study was to compare long-term adalimumab (ADA) and infliximab (IFX) retention rates in patients with intermediate, posterior, or panuveitis. Additional aims are as follows: (i) to identify any difference in the causes of treatment discontinuation between patients treated with ADA and IFX; (ii) to assess any impact of demogra...

Introduction: Immune-mediated inflammatory diseases (IMIDs) are chronic autoimmune conditions that share common pathophysiologic mechanisms. The optimal management of patients with IMIDs remains challenging because the coexistence of different conditions requires the intervention of several specialists. The aim of this study was to develop a serie...

Intraocular inflammation is one of the more relevant complications of Behçet’s disease (BD), which tends to respond poorly to different medications. The ocular histopathologic changes are basically identical to those occurring in other organs and consist in a necrotizing leukocytoclastic obliterative vasculitis, which is probably immune complex-med...

Objective: To describe the epidemiology of non-infectious uveitis (NIU) in two tertiary referral rheumatology units in Central and Southern Italy. Methods. Two hundred and seventy-eight consecutive NIU patients (417 eyes) evaluated between January 2016 and January 2017 were enrolled. Collected data were analysed in accordance with the primary anato...

Oxidative stress and the overproduction of reactive oxygen species (ROS) play an important role in the pathogenesis of osteoarthritis (OA). Accumulating evidence has demonstrated the involvement of microRNAs (miRNAs) dysregulation in disease development and progression. In this study, we evaluated the effect of oxidative stress on miR-146a and miR-...

Introduction An understanding of real-world predictors of abatacept retention is limited. We analysed retention rates and predictors of abatacept retention in biologic-naïve and biologic-failure patients in a 12-month interim analysis of the 2-yearAbataCepTIn rOutiNe clinical practice (ACTION) study. Methods ACTION was an international, observatio...

The metal abundance of the hot plasma that permeates galaxy clusters represents the accumulation of heavy elements produced by billions of supernovae. Therefore, X-ray spectroscopy of the intracluster medium provides an opportunity to investigate the nature of supernova explosions integrated over cosmic time. In particular, the abundance of the iro...

Abstract Background Osteoarthritis (OA) of the trapeziometacarpal joint (TMJ) is a disabling condition with a significant impact on quality of life. The optimal management of hand OA requires a combination of non-pharmacological and pharmacological treatments that include intra-articular (i.a.) therapy. EULAR experts recommend corticosteroid inject...

Purpose: To evaluate serum levels of visfatin, resistin and adiponectin in patients with erosive (E) and non-erosive (NE) osteoarthritis (OA) of the hand (HOA) compared to normal controls (NC). Methods: 94 outpatients with E HOA and NE HOA and 21 NC were enrolled. The radiological assessment of both hands was performed according to the Kellgren-...

Purpose: To evaluate the 10-year drug retention rate of infliximab (IFX) in Behçet’s disease (BD)-related uveitis, the effect of a concomitant use of disease modifying anti-rheumatic drugs (DMARDs) on drug survival and differences according to the lines of biologic treatment. Methods: Cumulative survival rates were studied using the Kaplan-Meier pl...

Mechanical stimuli and hydrostatic pressure (HP) play an important role in the regulation of chondrocytes metabolism. Growing evidence demonstrated the ability of mechanical loading to modulate the expression of microRNA (miRNA) involved in chondrocytes homeostasis and in the pathogenesis of osteoarthritis (OA). The expression of miR-155, miR-181a...

Purpose: To evaluate golimumab (GOL) efficacy in the management of Behçet’s disease (BD)-related uveitis. Methods: We retrospectively collected data from 5 patients (8 eyes) with at least two recent relapses of uveitis, treated with GOL at the standard dose of 50 mg every 4 weeks. Results: A complete control of intraocular inflammation was observed...

To assess the long-term effectiveness and safety of tocilizumab, abatacept, and tumor necrosis factor-α inhibitors (TNFi), in the Italian real-world setting of rheumatoid arthritis (RA). The records of adult RA patients from the Italian biologics’ registry Gruppo Italiano Studio Early Arthritis (GISEA) were analyzed. Demographic and clinical data w...

Rheumatoid Arthritis (RA) is an autoimmune chronic disease that is characterized by the positivity of various antibodies, the most specific being autoantibodies against citrullinated antigens (ACPA). Despite ACPA are not arthritogenic by themselves, ACPA positive individuals have high risk of RA development and ACPA positivity is associated with se...

Background/aims Adalimumab (ADA) has been shown to be an effective treatment for Behçet’s disease (BD)-related uveitis. We aimed at evaluating the cumulative retention rate of ADA during a 48-month follow-up period in patients with BD-related uveitis, the impact of a concomitant use of disease modifying anti-rheumatic drugs (DMARDs) on ADA retentio...

Objective To identify a set of variables that could discriminate patients with adult-onset periodic fever, aphthous stomatitis, pharyngitis, and cervical adenitis (PFAPA) syndrome from subjects with fever of unknown origin (FUO). Methods We enrolled 74 adults diagnosed with PFAPA syndrome according to the currently used pediatric diagnostic criter...

Résumé Objectif Évaluer l’influence de l’indice de masse corporelle (IMC) à l’inclusion sur l’efficacité et la rétention à six mois de l’abatacept administré par voie intraveineuse chez des patients atteints de polyarthrite rhumatoïde (PR) n’ayant jamais reçu de traitement biologique. Méthodes Il s’agissait d’une analyse de six mois d’une étude p...

The aim of this study was to evaluate the whole-blood levels of miR-155, miR-223, miR-181a, miR-146a, and miR-let-7e in patients with bilateral knee osteoarthritis (OA) after a cycle of mud-bath therapy (MBT). Thirty-two patients with knee OA defined by the ACR criteria were included. Twenty-one patients (MBT group) were daily treated with a combin...

Background: Non-infectious uveitis (NIU) leads to severe visual impairment, potentially impacting on health-related quality of life (QoL). Objectives: To investigate the impact of NIU on QoL. Methods: Eighty NIU patients and 23 healthy controls completed the 36-item Short-Form Health Survey (SF)-36. The SF-36 values were statistically analyzed...

Our aim was to prospectively investigate the impact of Behçet's disease (BD), disease activity, and clinical and demographic characteristics on different aspects of quality of life (QoL) measured by the short-form (SF)-36 QoL scale. We administered the SF-36 to 37 consecutive BD patients in different moments of disease activity, and to 23 healthy c...

Background: Interleukin (IL)-1 plays a crucial role in the pathogenesis of Adult onset Still’s disease (AOSD). Objectives: To evaluate the efficacy and safety of anakinra (ANA) and canakinumab (CAN) in a large group of AOSD patients. Methods: Data on clinical, serological features, and concomitant treatments were retrospectively collected at baseli...

Objectives: GO-MORE Trial investigated the use of Golimumab (GLM) in 3280 rheumatoid arthritis (RA) patients worldwide. At present, the burden of arthritis is greater in poorer countries than in developed countries due to socioeconomic disparities, thus suggesting the usefulness of subgroup investigations. We aimed to evaluate GLM as add-on therap...

Background IL-1 pathway plays a major role in the pathogenesis of Adult onset Still's disease (AOSD). IL-1 inhibitors [Anakinra (ANK) and Canakinumab (CAN)] proved their efficacy in AOSD as demonstrated in several case-reports and small case-series. However, due to the disease rarity, large randomized control trials are still lacking. Objectives T...

Background Current information on the use of adalimumab (ADA) in the treatment of ocular Behçet's disease (BD) is still based mainly on small series or case reports; nonetheless preliminary evidence is promising. Objectives The study aim was to evaluate the efficacy of ADA in a large series of BD-related uveitis. Methods We performed a multicente...

Background The antibody-based targeted pharmacodelivery of cytokines by means of immunocytokines has the potential to enhance therapeutic activity at the site of disease while sparing healthy tissues. Dekavil (F8IL10) is a fully human immunocytokine composed of the vascular targeting antibody F8 (specific to EDA) fused to the cytokine interleukin-1...

Background Selective cyclooxigenase (COX)-2 inhibitors were developed to prevent NSAIDs gastro-intestinal adverse effects. VA692, a new hydroxyetyl selective COX-2 inhibitor, showed anti-inflammatory, anti-nociceptive and chondroprotective properties. Proteomics is being applied for the study of drug mode of action, toxicity and to identify new dru...

Background MicroRNAs (miRNAs) are a class of 19–23 nucleotides long non-coding RNAs that post-transcriptionally regulate the activity of target mRNAs. MicroRNAs are involved in cartilage homeostasis and play an important role in the pathogenesis of osteoarthritis (OA). They have been detected in human plasma and in synovial fluid and are considered...

Objectives To evaluate the role of interleukin (IL)-1 inhibitors anakinra (ANA) and canakinumab (CAN) in the treatment of Behçet disease (BD)-related uveitis Methods multicenter retrospective observational study including 19 consecutive BD patients (31 affected eyes) receiving treatment with anti-IL-1 agents. Data were analyzed at baseline, at 3 a...

Background The ACTION (NCT02109666) study was designed to provide prospective, real-world data on abatacept (ABA) retention in patients (pts) with RA. Objectives To assess the retention rate and to identify prognostic factors of ABA retention in the overall ACTION population and by treatment line over 2 yrs. Methods ACTION is a 2-yr, internationa...

Background Uveitis is a sight-threatening inflammation which may involve different anatomic parts inside the eye. Rheumatologists should be aware of the ocular clinical signs and of the frequency of uveitis because it may cause irreversible lesions to the eye that predominantly affect people in their most productive years, being one of the most com...

Background Ochronosis, the musculoskeletal manifestation of alcaptonuria (AKU), is characterized by alterations of the spine and large joints of the limbs similar to those of osteoarthritis. However, some cases of spinal involvement that resembles spondiloarthritis (SpA) have been describe, suggesting a prevalent inflammatory involvement of the joi...

Background Behçet's disease (BD) is a multi-systemic inflammatory disorder consisting of recurrent oral aphthosis, genital ulcers, and chronic relapsing bilateral uveitis. However, many other organs including the vascular, gastrointestinal, neurological, and musculoskeletal systems can be affected. Pathogenetically, both innate and adaptive immunit...

Background ACTION is a 2-year, observational study of patients (pts) with moderate-to-severe RA who initiated IV abatacept (ABA) in Canada and Europe (NCT02109666). Objectives To determine pt biologic (b)DMARD use prior to initiation and after discontinuation of ABA overall and by treatment line in ACTION. Methods Pts with RA initiated IV ABA as...

Background Patients (pts) with RA may be able to switch from IV to SC abatacept with no loss of efficacy or safety concerns, but data are inconclusive.1–4 In the ACTION (AbataCepT In rOutiNe clinical practice; NCT02109666) study, a 1-year interim analysis showed that switching had no adverse clinical effect.⁵ Objectives To examine treatment patter...

Background Remission is the current aim of early RA treatment. In patients with early, aggressive RA, combination with adalimumab (ADA) plus methotrexate (MTX) was superior to either MTX or ADA alone in obtaining clinical remission. Moreover, it has been demonstrated that a short-term aggressive treatment with high-dose glucocorticoids (GC) plus co...

Purpose: To evaluate the effectiveness and the systemic corticosteroid sparing effect of a single intravitreal dexamethasone (DEX) implant in patients with chronic noninfectious uveitic macular edema (UME). Methods: Data from 22 eyes treated with DEX implant for UME related to systemic or ocular-confined noninfectious diseases were retrospective...

Tumor necrosis factor receptor-associated periodic syndrome (TRAPS), caused by mutations in the TNFRSF1A gene, is the most frequent autosomal dominant autonflammatory disease displaying a relevant risk of reactive AA amyloidosis, if left untreated. Our report deals with one adult with TRAPS complicated by amyloidosis-related renal failure, treated...

Several pathogenetic studies have paved the way for a newer more rational therapeutic approach to non-infectious uveitis, and treatment of different forms of immune-driven uveitis has drastically evolved in recent years after the advent of biotechnological drugs. Tumor necrosis factor-α targeted therapies, the first-line recommended biologics in uv...

Objectives: Targeted drugs against key pathogenetic molecules such as TNF-alpha have significantly improved outcomes in rheumatoid arthritis (RA). They are widely used in clinical practice and drug registries give us information to support their use. Adalimumab (ADA) is able to induce a comprehensive disease control in RA by achieving clinical, fu...

Our aim was to retrospectively assess the role of golimumab as a treatment choice in patients with Behçet’s disease (BD). Seventeen patients diagnosed with BD according to the international criteria were consecutively enrolled; the BD Current Activity Form (BDCAF) was used to evaluate disease activity. After having collected clinical data from pati...

High-resolution X-ray spectroscopy with Hitomi was expected to resolve the origin of the faint unidentified E ≈ 3.5 keV emission line reported in several low-resolution studies of various massive systems, such as galaxies and clusters, including the Perseus cluster. We have analyzed the Hitomi first-light observation of the Perseus cluster. The emi...

Behçet’s disease (BD) is a multi-systemic inflammatory disorder consisting of recurrent oral aphthosis, genital ulcers, and chronic relapsing bilateral uveitis; however, many other organs may be affected. Several pro-inflammatory cytokines, mainly derived from Th1 and Th17 lymphocytes, seem to be involved in different pathogenic pathways leading to...