Systemic sclerosis: demographic, clinical and serological features in 100 Iranian patients.
To evaluate demographic, clinical and laboratory features associated with scleroderma-specific auto-antibodies. Sera of 100 patients with systemic sclerosis (SSc) were analyzed by an indirect immunofluorescence technique with HEp-2 cells as a substrate. Specific ANA such as anti-centromere antibodies (ACA), anti-topoisomerase (TOPO), anti-RNA polymerase III (Pol 3), anti-U3-RNP (U3-RNP), anti-Th/To (Th/To) and anti-PM/Scl (PM/Scl) were detected by line immunoassay and anti-U1-RNP (U1-RNP) by ELISA. Frequency of clinical features associated with a specific antibody group was reported cumulatively over the follow-up period. Frequency of specific clinical features was compared across the two disease subtype including limited cutaneous (lcSSc) or diffuse cutaneous (dcSSc) as well as the auto-antibody groups. Ninety-four percent of patients were ANA positive with significant higher skin score, Raynauds and digital ulcer/gangrene. Anti-TOPO was detected in 71% of all patients, in 90.5% of dcSSC and in 65.8% of lcSSc. Anti-TOPO was significantly associated with dcSSc, higher skin score, digital ulcer/gangrene, pulmonary fibrosis, DLCO <70%. U1-RNP antibody was associated with lower fibrosis in lung. ACA was positive in 7% of patients and exclusively in those with lcSSc. We did not find association between gender and presence of auto-antibodies. Anti-TOPO antibody had a high prevalence in contrast to low prevalence of ACA antibody. There were no differences in clinical subtypes of the disease in patients with positive anti-TOPO and positive ACA. Differences in prevalence of auto-antibodies are suggestive of further genetic study.
Rheumatology Research Center, Firoozgar Hospital Tehran, Tehran University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran. h-poormoghim@tums.ac.ir
Hadi
H
Poormoghim
Alireza Salek
AS
Moghadam
Maziar
M
Moradi-Lakeh
Mehrzad
M
Jafarzadeh
Behnam
B
Asadifar
Mohsen
M
Ghelman
Elham
E
Andalib
D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D000974:Antibodies, Antinuclear / Q000097:blood / Q000276:immunology; D001323:Autoantibodies / Q000097:blood / Q000276:immunology*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007492:Iran; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D012595:Scleroderma, Systemic / Q000097:blood / Q000276:immunology*
D000974:Antibodies, Antinuclear; D001323:Autoantibodies