title: Prevalence of anti-histone antibodies, their clinical significance and correlation with other autoantibodies in a cohort of Italian scleroderma patients.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  The aim of our study was to determine the prevalence, clinical significance of antibodies to individual histone components and to evaluate their correlation with other autoantibody specificities in a cohort of Italian SSc patients. Some authors, demonstrated high prevalence of anti-histone antibodies in Italian SSc patients, associated with cardiac and renal involvement, suggesting a prognostic value of these autoantibodies; however, these data need to be confirmed.
  
  
  METHODS
  Serum from 112 adult SSc patients, classified as diffuse (dc) and limited cutaneous (lc) SSc subsets were analyzed for autoantibodies by indirect immunofluorescence, fluoroenzyme immunoassay and enzyme immunoassay.
  
  
  RESULTS
  AHA were found in 13 patients (11.6%), nine with lcSSc and four with dcSSc. Among them, five patients were anti-Scl70+ and four were anti-CENP B+. The presence of AHA was not associated with multi-organ involvement or with diffuse subset, as already described. Anti-Scl70 was detected in 43% of patients, anti-CENP B in 32% and anti-RNA polymerase III in 7.1%. We confirmed the association between anti-Scl70 antibodies and pulmonary fibrosis (OR 15.75, p < 0.0001).
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  In our experience, the very low prevalence of AHA in Italian SSc patients and the lack of association with clinical manifestations suggest that this test is of little clinical use; however, it would be worthwhile extending the study to a larger population of patients.
authors.affiliation: Sezione di Reumatologia, Dipartimento di Medicina Clinica e Scienze Immunologiche, Policlinico Le Scotte, Viale Bracci, 53100 Siena, Italy.
authors.forename: Gabriella
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Morozzi
authors.affiliation: Sezione di Reumatologia, Dipartimento di Medicina Clinica e Scienze Immunologiche, Policlinico Le Scotte, Viale Bracci, 53100 Siena, Italy.
authors.forename: Francesca
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Bellisai
authors.affiliation: Sezione di Reumatologia, Dipartimento di Medicina Clinica e Scienze Immunologiche, Policlinico Le Scotte, Viale Bracci, 53100 Siena, Italy.
authors.forename: Irene
authors.initials: I
authors.lastname: Fineschi
authors.affiliation: Sezione di Reumatologia, Dipartimento di Medicina Clinica e Scienze Immunologiche, Policlinico Le Scotte, Viale Bracci, 53100 Siena, Italy.
authors.forename: Francesca
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Scaccia
authors.affiliation: Sezione di Reumatologia, Dipartimento di Medicina Clinica e Scienze Immunologiche, Policlinico Le Scotte, Viale Bracci, 53100 Siena, Italy.
authors.forename: Gabriella
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Pucci
authors.affiliation: Sezione di Reumatologia, Dipartimento di Medicina Clinica e Scienze Immunologiche, Policlinico Le Scotte, Viale Bracci, 53100 Siena, Italy.
authors.forename: Antonella
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Simpatico
authors.affiliation: Patologia Clinica I, Ospedale Policlinico-Bari, Bari, Italy.
authors.forename: Marilina
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Tampoia
authors.affiliation: Patologia Clinica I, Ospedale Policlinico-Bari, Bari, Italy.
authors.forename: Alessandra
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Chialà
authors.affiliation: Sezione di Reumatologia, Dipartimento di Medicina Interna e Medicina Pubblica (DiMIMP), Bari, Italy.
authors.forename: Giovanni
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Lapadula
authors.affiliation: Sezione di Reumatologia, Dipartimento di Medicina Clinica e Scienze Immunologiche, Policlinico Le Scotte, Viale Bracci, 53100 Siena, Italy.
authors.forename: Mauro
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Galeazzi
keywords: Anti-histone antibodies; Clinical manifestations; Prevalence; Systemic sclerosis