The Department of Rheumatology and Clinical Immunology collaborates with Humanitas University and focuses on disorders of joints, muscles, bones and systemic autoimmune diseases through outpatient, day hospital and inpatient diagnostics and treatments. The Department specialists see over 6,000 patients yearly.
The team focuses on two major disease areas:
- Osteoarticular systemic conditions – such as rheumatoid arthritis, psoriatic arthritis, ankylosing spondylitis, Reiter’s syndrome, gout, polymyalgia rheumatica, rheumatic fever, Paget’s disease, osteoarthritis, osteoporosis, as well as periarthritis of the shoulder, carpal tunnel syndrome, tendonitis, and fasciitis.
- Systemic autoimmune diseases, in which there is often no involvement of bones and joints (systemic lupus erythematosus, scleroderma, Sjögren’s syndrome, mixed connective tissue diseases and overlapping syndromes, antiphospholipid syndrome, polymyositis and dermatomyositis).
The Department is also specialized in the treatment of Raynaud’s phenomenon and vasculitis (e.g. Horton arteritis, Behcet’s disease, Takayasu’s arteritis). The team has a vast experience in the research and treatment of Raynaud’s phenomenon and scleroderma, in particular in the treatment of trophic skin lesions with prostanoids and inhibitors of endothelin, in the presence of pulmonary hypertension, which is a serious complications of the disease that is now well managed with new therapies.
The Department of Rheumatology is an accredited center for the administration of “biologics” for various forms of arthritis.
What is more, the team runs a dedicated center for Raynaud’s phenomenon and scleroderma. The Department also includes two units dedicated to osteometabolic diseases (osteoporosis, Paget’s disease). The first one is run in collaboration with Oncology and evaluates the risk of osteoporosis in women with breast cancer from an osteometabolic point of view. The second one is dedicated to osteoporosis and bone diseases. The team also performs instrumental procedures: capillaroscopy, tests for patients with Raynaud’s phenomenon and scleroderma, joint ultrasounds, arthrocentesis, articular infiltration and joint infiltration under ultrasound guidance.
Finally, the Department is an authorized center for the diagnosis and treatment of rare diseases, such as dermatopolymyositis, polymyositis, mixed connective tissue disease, eosinophilic fasciitis, undifferentiated connective tissue disorders.
