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036). The mRSS has a significant negative linear effect on the delta FTP at the baseline and the end of the follow-up (r -0.31 and -0.40, respectively). NVP-BGT226 manufacturer Moreover, changes of mRSS and delta FTP showed a negative linear association over time (r -0.22). These linear effects remained significant after regrouping the patients based on their SSc subtype. Delta FTP and FVC were not correlated either at the baseline or at the end. It seems that the delta FTP can be a valuable clinical index, supported by its correlated changes with mRSS and other SSc clinical manifestations over the one-year follow-up.The objective was to assess knowledge and therapeutic approaches to the management of gout among healthcare professionals and people with/without gout, in Italy. This was a cross-sectional internet-based survey targeting general practitioners (GPs), specialists, pharmacists, and people with/without gout. Between December 2017 and March 2018, participants completed questionnaires on epidemiology, cause/risk factors, therapy objectives and management/treatment strategies to improve outcomes. Overall, 3184 people completed the survey 699 GPs, 426 specialists, 655 pharmacists and 1404 subjects from the general population 126 (9.0%) with and 1278 (91.0%) without gout. Notably, less than half of GPs, specialists and people without gout confirmed the published 1% prevalence of gout in Italy. Lifestyle was acknowledged as the main risk factor for gout by nearly 50% of specialists and GPs, while only 13.8% and 12.4%, respectively, considered the role of genetic factors. Uric acid overproduction was deemed as the cause of gout by 60% of GPs and specialists, whereas insufficient excretion by only 30%. Fewer than half of patients were aware that gout permanently damages joints, and even fewer of the renal and cardiovascular implications (19.4% and 12%, respectively); moreover, most people without gout replied that their doctor had never talked with them about uric acid and its correlation with gout development. Finally, GPs were divided on uric acid target levels (48.3% said less then 6 mg/dL and 18.9% less then 7 mg/dL). Despite major advances in the knowledge of physiopathological mechanisms of gout, the results of our survey highlight the many treatment and knowledge gaps in its management. Cooperation between multidisciplinary teams is required to break down barriers and ensure optimal treatment with effective and innovative agents of this ever-increasing debilitating condition.The aim was to provide a translation into Italian with cross-cultural adaptation of the French FLARE-Rheumatoid Arthritis (RA) questionnaire, and to test its acceptability, feasibility, reliability and construct validity in a single-centre cohort study. The French version of the FLARE-RA questionnaire was cross-culturally adapted and translated into Italian following an established forward-backward translation procedure, with independent translations and backtranslations. To validate the Italian version we tested the internal validity with Cronbach's alpha, test-retest reliability with the intraclass correlation coefficient, agreement between assessments with Bland-Altman plots and construct validity with Spearman's correlation coefficients. The questionnaire was tested on 283 consecutive RA outpatients (mean age 56.1±13.9 years, 226/283 females, median disease duration 12.6 years ranging from 0.2 to 70.6). For the global score (11 items) the Cronbach's alpha coefficient was 0.94. The intraclass correlation coefficient was 0.87 (95% CI, 0.76-0.96). The correlation of FLARE-RA global score was 0.59 (95% CI, 0.50-0.66) with the Disease Activity Score on 28 joints, 0.63 (95% CI, 0.55-0.71) with the Simplified Disease Activity Index, 0.77 (95% CI, 0.71-0.83) with the RA Impact of Disease and 0.67 (95% CI, 0.59-0.73) with the Health Assessment Questionnaire. The Italian version of the FLARE-RA is feasible, brief and easy to administer. The translated and cross-cultural adapted showed accordingly to be valid and reliable. This questionnaire has some practical advantages, such as clarity, comprehensiveness, simplicity, and a minimum filling time. The development of cross-cultural adapted questionnaires in different languages is of pivotal importance to obtain standardized and comparable data across countries.Red cell distribution width (RDW) is an unconventional biomarker of inflammation. We aimed to explore its role as a predictor of treatment response in rheumatoid arthritis (RA). Eighty-two RA patients (55 females), median age [interquartile range] 63 years [52-69], were selected by scanning the medical records of a rheumatology clinic, to analyze the associations between baseline RDW, disease activity scores and inflammatory markers, as well as the relationship between RDW changes following methotrexate (MTX) and treatment response. The lower the median baseline RDW, the greater were the chances of a positive EULAR response at three months, 13.5% [13.0-14.4] being among those with good response, vs 14.0% [13.2-14.7] and 14.2% [13.5- 16.0] (p=0.009) among those with moderate and poor response, respectively. MTX treatment was followed by a significant RDW increase (p less then 0.0001). The increase of RDW was greater among patients with good EULAR response, becoming progressively smaller in cases with moderate and poor response (1.0% [0.4-1.4] vs. 0.7 [0.1-2.0] vs. 0.3 [-0.1-0.8]; p=0.03). RDW is a strong predictor of early response to MTX in RA. RDW significantly increases after MTX initiation in parallel to treatment response, suggesting a role as a marker of MTX effectiveness.OBJECTIVE to provide evidence-based up-to-date recommendations for the management of patients with a definite diagnosis of polymyalgia rheumatica (PMR). METHODS A systematic literature review was performed to find the existing clinical practice guidelines (CPGs) on PMR and the framework of the Guidelines International Network Adaptation Working Group was used to appraise (AGREE II), synthesize, and customize the recommendations according to the needs of the Italian healthcare context. Rheumatologists on behalf of the Italian Society of Rheumatology (SIR) and from the SIR Epidemiology Unit joined the working group and identified the key health questions on PMR to guide the systematic literature review. Physicians, including general practitioners and specialists, and health professionals who manage PMR in the clinical practice were the target audience. The final recommendations were rated externally by a multi-disciplinary and multi-professional group of stakeholders. RESULTS From the systematic search in databases (Medline, Embase) and grey literature, 3 CPGs were identified and appraised by two independent raters.