Matteo Piga

Department of Medical Sciences and Public Health

Telephone: +39 070 675 5109-4069

Personal webpage: here

Main areas of expertise: Rheumatic Musculoskeletal disease, Systemic Lupus Erythematosus and related disorders

Main research topics: Prof. Piga’s current research topics include immunogenetics, epidemiology, and assessment of disease activity and chronic irreversible consequences of organ damage. In addition, he is enthusiastically involved in rheumatology training programs primarily focused on managing connective tissue diseases.

Professor Piga also contributed to over 110 publications (PubMed) in the field of Rheumatology.

Key publications:

Cocco C, Manca E, Corda G, Angioni MM, Noli B, Congia M, Loy F, Isola M, Chessa E, Floris A, Lorefice L, Saba L, Mathieu M, Ferri GL, Cauli A, Piga M. Brain-reactive autoantibodies in neuropsychiatric systemic lupus erythematosus. Frontiers immunology. 2023; 10.3389/fimmu.2023.1157149
Floris A, Chessa E, Sebastiani GD, Prevete I, Iannone F, Coladonato L, Govoni M, Bortoluzzi A, Mosca M, Tani C, Doria A, Iaccarino L, Franceschini F, Fredi M, Conti F, Spinelli FR, Bellisai F, D’Alessandro R, Zanetti A, Carrara G, Scirè CA, Cauli A, Piga M. Glucocorticoid tapering and associated outcome in patients with newly diagnosed systemic lupus erythematosus: the real-world GULP prospective observational study. RMD Open. 2022 Dec;8(2):e002701. doi: 10.1136/rmdopen-2022-002701.
Erre GL, Cacciapaglia F, Sakellariou G, Manfredi A, Bartoloni E, Viapiana O, Fornaro M, Cauli A, Mangoni AA, Woodman RJ, Palermo BL, Gremese E, Cafaro G, Nucera V, Vacchi C, Spinelli FR, Atzeni F, Piga M. C-reactive protein and 10-year cardiovascular risk in rheumatoid arthritis. Eur J Intern Med. 2022 Oct;104:49-54.
Felten R, Kawka L, Dubois M, Ugarte-Gil MF, Fuentes-Silva Y, Piga M, Arnaud L. Tolerance of COVID-19 vaccination in patients with systemic lupus erythematosus: the international VACOLUP study. Lancet Rheumatol. 2021 Sep;3(9):e613-e615. doi: 10.1016/S2665-9913(21)00221-6.
Piga M, Congia M, Balestrieri A, Angioni MM, Cangemi I, Cau R, Chessa E, Floris A, Figus F, Iagnocco A, Cauli A, Saba L. Imbalanced MMP-3 and MMP-12 serum levels in systemic lupus erythematosus patients with Jaccoud’s arthropathy and a distinctive MRI pattern. Rheumatology (Oxford). 2021 Sep 1;60(9):4218-4228. doi: 10.1093/rheumatology/keaa915.
Piga M, Floris A, Espinosa G, Serpa Pinto L, Kougkas N, Lo Monaco A, Lopalco G, Orlando I, Pirani V, Santos E, Bertsias G, Cantarini L, Cauli A, Cervera R, Correia J, Govoni M, Iannone F, Neri P, Martins Silva A, Vasconcelos C, Muntoni M, Mathieu A; the BODI Project Group. Development and preliminary validation of the Behçet’s syndrome Overall Damage Index (BODI). RMD Open. 2020 Jul;6(2):e001192. doi: 10.1136/rmdopen-2020-001192.
Piga M, Floris A, Sebastiani GD, Prevete I, Iannone F, Coladonato L, Govoni M, Bortoluzzi A, Mosca M, Tani C, Doria A, Iaccarino L, Franceschini F, Fredi M, Conti F, Spinelli FR, Galeazzi M, Bellisai F, Zanetti A, Carrara G, Scirè CA, Mathieu A. Risk factors of damage in early diagnosed systemic lupus erythematosus: results of the Italian multicentre Early Lupus Project inception cohort. Rheumatology (Oxford). 2020 Sep 1;59(9):2272-2281. doi: 10.1093/rheumatology/kez584.
Piga M, Floris A, Cappellazzo G, Chessa E, Congia M, Mathieu A, Cauli A. Failure to achieve lupus low disease activity state (LLDAS) six months after diagnosis is associated with early damage accrual in Caucasian patients with systemic lupus erythematosus. Arthritis Res Ther. 2017 Nov 10;19(1):247. doi: 10.1186/s13075-017-1451-5.
Steri M, Orrù V, Idda ML, Pitzalis M, Pala M, Zara I, Sidore C, Faà V, Floris M, Deiana M, Asunis I, Porcu E, Mulas A, Piras MG, Lobina M, Lai S, Marongiu M, Serra V, Marongiu M, Sole G, Busonero F, Maschio A, Cusano R, Cuccuru G, Deidda F, Poddie F, Farina G, Dei M, Virdis F, Olla S, Satta MA, Pani M, Delitala A, Cocco E, Frau J, Coghe G, Lorefice L, Fenu G, Ferrigno P, Ban M, Barizzone N, Leone M, Guerini FR, Piga M, Firinu D, Kockum I, Lima Bomfim I, Olsson T, Alfredsson L, Suarez A, Carreira PE, Castillo-Palma MJ, Marcus JH, Congia M, Angius A, Melis M, Gonzalez A, Alarcón Riquelme ME, da Silva BM, Marchini M, Danieli MG, Del Giacco S, Mathieu A, Pani A, Montgomery SB, Rosati G, Hillert J, Sawcer S, D’Alfonso S, Todd JA, Novembre J, Abecasis GR, Whalen MB, Marrosu MG, Meloni A, Sanna S, Gorospe M, Schlessinger D, Fiorillo E, Zoledziewska M, Cucca F. Overexpression of the Cytokine BAFF and Autoimmunity Risk. N Engl J Med. 2017 Apr 27;376(17):1615-1626. doi: 10.1056/NEJMoa1610528.
Piga M, Mathieu A. Genetic susceptibility to Behcet’s disease: role of genes belonging to the MHC region. Rheumatology (Oxford). 2011 Feb;50(2):299-310. doi: 10.1093/rheumatology/keq331. pub 2010 Nov 8. PMID: 21059670.