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To help fibromyalgia syndrome's diagnosis, the authors propose the use of Back Pain Classification Scale (BPCS), verbal test for pain analysis, able to distinguish between organic and functional disease. Two-hundred patients suspected for fibromyalgia and forty controls completed the questionnaire and so it was possible correctly to distinguish patients with organic disease from those affected by fibromyalgia. The authors conclude that BPCS can represent a useful tool for fibromyalgia diagnosis.

Although the exact etiology of progressive systemic sclerosis (SSP) is still unknown, it is felt that immunologic disorders may be implicated in its pathogenesis. On the basis of these considerations, an open study with an immunomodulating drug, thymopentin, was performed in 20 SSP outpatients. These subjects were initially treated with thymopentin three times a week for three consecutive months (phase I); during a second study phase lasting three months, 10 patients continued to receive thymopentin and the remaining 10 placebo (phase II). A significant improvement in various clinical, laboratory and instrumental findings was seen following thymopentin treatment. During phase II, those on placebo regressed to basal conditions, while an added improvement was noted in those who continued with thymopentin.

The antalgic activity of a newly characterized NSAID (cinnoxicam) was evaluated by cutaneous sensimetry. A precocious and significant increase in pain threshold was demonstrated by the algometric data observed after oral administration of one tablet of the drug under examination in both healthy volunteers and in rheumatic patients.

The authors investigated the possible correlation between blood concentrations and clinical outcome in 38 auranofin-treated patients with rheumatoid arthritis, diagnosed according to ARA criteria. The results showed that the whole blood gold concentrations did not correlate with the clinical parameters investigated and some laboratory findings. The authors discuss this lack of correlation, suggesting that a clear genetic disposition can interfere with the clinical response, affecting the metabolism and kinetics of the drug.

In 20 patients suffering from osteoarthritis and treated with non steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs) for one month sucralfate has been added for further two months. Endoscopic examination before/after this treatment confirmed the cytoprotective property of sucralfate, with normalization of the gastric mucosa and subsidence of subjective symptomatology.

Twenty patients suffering from acute lumbosacral syndromes (Group A) and eight patients suffering from acute gout (Group B) were treated with parenteral tiaprofenic acid (TA). In Group A TA was administered for 7 days at the dosage of 400 mg/daily for the first four days (1 200 mg vial i.m. in the morning, 1 in the evening), from the 5th to the 7th day with 200 mg/daily (1 vial in the evening) and, in Group B, TA was administered for 6 days at the dosage of 600 mg on the first day, (with 1 vial/8 hours of TA 200 mg by parenteral route) the 2nd and 3rd day with 1 vial/12 hours and the 4th and 6th day with 1 vial/daily in the evening. TA was found to be active on all clinical parameters evaluated. The tolerability was also good: only 4 patients with acute lumbosacral syndrome suffered from local pain.