title: [Immunological diagnosis of scleroderma].
abstract: Systemic sclerosis is characterized by a fibrosis and a microvascular injury. These vascular lesions can affect internal organs causing severe visceral damages. The pathogenesis of this disease is complex but some immunological disorders with a production of antinuclear auto-antibodies can be useful to the clinicians, especially for an early diagnosis and to distinguish the scleroderma/myositis overlap syndromes. This review presents the target antigens and the methods of detection of the different antinuclear auto-antibodies. Sensitivity, specificity and clinical association between the antinuclear auto-antibodies and the different subclasses of scleroderma are also presented in detail.
authors.affiliation: Laboratoire d'Auto-immunité, Service d'Immunologie, Centre Hospitalier Lyon-Sud, 69495 Pierre-Bénite, France. nicole.fabien@chu-lyon.fr
authors.forename: Nicole
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Fabien
authors.forename: Hugues
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Rousset
mesh_terms: D001323:Autoantibodies / Q000032:analysis; D005355:Fibrosis / Q000473:pathology; D006801:Humans; D007158:Immunologic Techniques; D008833:Microcirculation; D012595:Scleroderma, Systemic / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000276:immunology
chemical_list: D001323:Autoantibodies