Anti-PM/Scl autoantibodies in patients without clinical polymyositis or scleroderma
Schnitz, W.; Taylor-Albert, E.; Targoff, I.N.; Reichlin, M.; Scofield, R.H.
Journal of Rheumatology 23(10): 1729-1733
1996
ISSN/ISBN: 0315-162X PMID: 8895149 Document Number: 461672
Objective: To characterize patients with anti-PM/Scl but no definite myositis-scleroderma (PM/SSc) overlap or either polymyositis/dermatomyositis (PM/DM) or systemic sclerosis (SSc) alone. Methods: Review of all patients with anti-PM/Scl identified at a reference serologic clinical laboratory. Results: We identified 5 patients with anti-PM/Scl not considered to have either PM, SSc, or PM/SSc. One had primary Sjogren's syndrome but the other 4 had some feature(s) of illness consistent with PM/DM or SSc, such as hypertensive crisis or interstitial lung disease. These 5 patients represented 10% of the total number of patients with anti-PM/Scl identified in our clinical laboratory. Conclusion: Anti-PM/Scl may be a marker for atypical or subclinical presentations of the usually associated diseases, or this autoantibody may precede expression of the underlying disease. The antibody may also be present in patients who never express PM, SSc, or PM/SSc. Anti-PM/Scl without the usually described illnesses is not uncommon in our series of 55 patients with anti-PM/Scl.