Biomarkers are important in clinical practice because they allow quantitative assessment of diagnosis, disease processes, and treatment response. However, because development of biomarkers lags significantly behind that of drug development, absence of new and appropriate markers may slow the development of patient-tailored targeted therapies. At the 2007 Annual Meeting of the Group for Research...

The continuous discovery of new T cell subpopulations in human autoimmune diseases is making the immunopathological network more complex. Th17 cells are one such newly identified subset of T cells, characterized by the production of signature cytokine IL-17. In last few years, several studies have strongly established the regulatory role of Th17 cells and its signature cytokine IL-17 in autoimm...

Psoriatic arthritis is a diverse condition that may be characterized by peripheral inflammatory arthritis, axial involvement, dactylitis and enthesitis. Magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) allows visualization of soft tissue, articular and entheseal lesions, and provides a unique picture of the disease process that cannot be gained using other imaging modalities. This review focuses on the literat...

A STORY OF CLASSIFICATION CRITERIA Several sets of criteria were proposed over the years for classifying psoriatic arthritis. Recent are the CASPAR criteria. The patient must have inflammatory articular disease ( joint, spine or entheses) with three points from the following five categories: (1) evidence of current psoriasis or a personal or familial history of psoriasis; (2) typical psoriatic ...

INTRODUCTION The tumor necrosis factor (TNF-α) was initially described as lymphotoxin or cachectin. The discovery of therapies blocking the action of TNF-α, in 1988, started a new era in the therapy. One of often reported adverse effects related to the use of TNF-α antagonists is induction of the formation of autologous antibodies and antibodies neutralizing anti-TNF drugs. The development of a...

Psoriasis and psoriatic arthritis are associated with increased risk of cardiovascular events and cardiovascular mortality. Alongside classic risk factors such as atherosclerosis, the severity of psoriatic skin disease also influences cardiovascular risk in these patients. In both cases, endothelial dysfunction and increased intima-media thickness in the carotid artery are indicators of subclin...

Remission was a rare event, even in the most advanced rheumatology clinics, until recent times. However, in the early 1990s, it was chosen as the treatment goal and the primary outcome measure for the Finnish Rheumatoid Arthritis Combination Therapy (FIN-RACo) trial, which can be considered the beginning of remission's way to rheumatology. In addition to remission in patients with rheumatoid ar...

Psoriatic arthritis is a heterogeneous condition, the pattern of which is determined by any combination of pathology affecting peripheral joints, the enthesis and the spine. There is a paucity of evidence for most of the conventional agents used to treat psoriatic arthritis, with many of them being used on the basis of experience in rheumatoid arthritis. Herein, we summarise the evidence compil...

The role of T cell subpopulations in human disease is in a transition phase due to continuous discovery of new subsets of T cell, one of which is Th17, characterized by the production of signature cytokine IL-17. In the last couple of years, many articles are coming out on the role of Th17 and its signature cytokine IL-17 in different autoimmune diseases like rheumatoid arthritis, psoriasis, ps...

PURPOSE OF THE STUDY To assess the state of the hepatobiliary system in psoriasis andpsoriatic arthritis in order to establish a causal relationship and to identify clinical and functional predictors of psoriatic disease progression. METHODS The study includedpatients with extensive psoriasis vulgaris (n = 175) aged 18 to 66 years old and healthy donors (n = 30), matched by sex and age: Group...