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Objectives: A clinically practical tool to assess skin biomechanical properties rapidly and accurately is still lacking. Our aim was to examine the intra- and inter-observer reproducibility of a myotonometer for objective skin property assessment in systemic sclerosis (SSc), comparing it with the modified Rodnan skin score (mRSS), and distinguishing patients from healthy controls. Method: Thirty-four patients (21 limited and 13 diffuse SSc), and 31 age and gender-matched healthy controls were enrolled. Skin tone and stiffness were measured at four different anatomical sites (the forearm, hand, leg, and foot) using a myotonometer. The correlation between the mRSS and skin properties was assessed. Also, hand functionality was evaluated for possible correlations between the variables. The differences in skin properties between dcSSc and lcSSc patients, and healthy controls were assessed using variance analysis. Results: Intra- and inter-examiner reproducibility were excellent (ICC = 0.70 to 0.98) for tone and stiffness except for non-dominant hand tone, which showed good reliability (ICC = 0.64 to 0.74). Stiffness and tone values of the hands, forearms, and feet significantly correlated with mRSS total score (r = 0.40 to 0.71, p < 0.05). Additionally, tone and stiffness of the hands and forearms moderately correlated with hand function (p < 0.05). Tone and stiffness values increased in patients with dcSSc compared to healthy controls, or patients with lcSSc, at the hands, forearms, and legs (p < 0.05). Conclusions: Our findings emphasize the potential utility of the myotonometer for assessing skin properties and differentiating SSc patients from controls, demonstrating its promise as a valuable clinical evaluation tool in this context. Key Points •The myotonometer displayed excellent intra- and inter-examiner reproducibility for assessing skin properties. •Skin tone and stiffness parameters well correlated with the mRSS scores. •The myotonometer can distinguish patients with diffuse cutaneous SSc from healthy controls. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objective: To the best of our knowledge, there is no study evaluating the infectious features of Familial Mediterranean fever (FMF) in the literature. Here, we tested two hypotheses: infection is more common in FMF and FMF severity and infection may be linked. Methods: We included three groups: FMF (363 patients), spondyloarthropathy (SpA-patients) (112 patients) and control (121 patients). We screened participants for infection characteristics in the last year with a pre-approved and validated questionnaire. Firstly, we compared infection rates, frequency of infection types, and infection severity within groups. We then evaluated the factors associated with infection in FMF. Results: We found that infection rates were similar in FMF, SpA-patients and controls. However, admission to the infection outpatient clinic was more common in FMF (p=0.001) and the duration of workforce loss due to infection was longer in FMF than controls (p=0.002). Furthermore, FMF-patients with infection had higher disease severity (p=0.004), high acute phase reactants between attacks (p=0.006) and more site involvement during attacks (p<0.001). In multivariate analyses, the latter was found to be significant (p=0.003). Conclusion: We discovered no increase in the infection rate of FMF patients. Patients with infections, on the other hand, may have more severe FMF. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]