Veronica Codullo

TL;DR: The comparison of RTX treated versus untreated matched-control SSc patients from the EUSTAR cohort demonstrated improvement of skin fibrosis and prevention of worsening lung fibrosis, supporting the therapeutic concept of B cell inhibition in SSc.

TL;DR: In a cohort of early RA patients treated with conventional DMARDs, US-GS can detect residual disease activity more sensitively than clinical examination both in active disease and in remission and PD-positive synovial hypertrophy identifies an ongoing inflammation even during remission and predicts short-term relapse.

TL;DR: Being much more than simple autoantibody producers, B cells are able to secrete many important cytokines and to efficiently present antigens to T lymphocytes in the synovial environment, and lately have claimed attention as B cell depletion has become a common and effective strategy of treatment in RA.

TL;DR: Survition was not influenced by the underlying anti-aminoacyl tRNA synthetase antibodies’ positivity, which confirmed that antisynthetase syndrome is a heterogeneous condition and that antibody specificity only partially influences the clinical presentation and evolution of this condition.

TL;DR: This paper outlines the currently used procedures for sampling and processing of synovial tissue, and presents a standardised recommendation to support multicentre translational research.