peer reviewedThe pathophysiology and the treatment of diseases with clinical presentation so
different as rheumatoid arthritis, ankylosing spondylitis, psoriatic arthritis
and psoriasis vulgaris have been revolutionized by the discovery of common
pro-inflammatory effector mechanisms involving TNF-alpha and by the use of
targeted therapies, the anti-TNF-alpha antibodies. In the past 10 years, our
experience has helped several hundreds of patients who were treated with novel
drugs, years before they became routinely available. In parallel tools of
metrology were developped that can now be applied to the routine patient. Lastly,
clinical research on these new drugs has also generated derived research works
allowing the university hospital to satisfactorilly fullfil its specific
missions