Vascular, metabolic and musculoskeletal diseases: From experimental to clinical research

The Internal Medicine section, from the origins in the seventies with Carlo De Martinis to Riccardo Sarzani today, has been involved in cardiovascular medicine integrated with metabolic aspects. The research has been focused on many aspect of hypertension, from basic and experimental research with a translational approach up to clinical studies even in the elderly, with special focus on obesity and natriuretic peptides. Our main results have been confirmed by many independent groups and our key papers are highly cited. Collaborations with three U.S. groups, from Boston University in the eighties to the Mayo Clinic today, have consolidated our research efforts. The research activity of Rheumatology Clinic was mainly devoted to develop a core set of knowledge which endorsed worldwide the use of ultrasound in daily rheumatologic practice. Moreover, our group firstly introduced the capillaroscopy technique in Italy to study the microcirculation in connective tissue diseases. Another clinical area of research was dedicated on patient-reported outcomes in inflammatory arthritides and fibromyalgia. The results obtained over the years have allowed us to keep a widely recognized role not only in research, but also in teaching, proven by the publication of more than 300 studies in high quality peer-reviewed international scientific journals.