Undifferentiated Connective Tissue Disease Research Articles

Hepatitis B Vaccination and Undifferentiated Connective Tissue Disease

Hepatitis B Vaccination and Undifferentiated Connective Tissue Disease

THU0409 Mixed connective tissue disease and undifferentiated connective tissue disease: Do doctors classify correctly?

BackgroundMixed connective tissue disease (MCTD) and undifferentiated connective tissue disease (UCTD) are heterogeneous diseases which clinical manifestations are considerable overlapped with other connective tissue disease. Clinical diagnosis is usually depended...

THU0430 Serological Prevalence of Hepatitis B Virus Infection Among Patients with Different Rheumatic Diseases

BackgroundReactivation of HBV is well-recognized and frequently reported in rheumatic patients, particularly those receiving disease modifying anti-rheumatic drugs [1, 2]. This might occur during [2] or after [3] cessation of...

AB0196 Antibodies versus domain I of BETA2-glycoprotein I: A marker of systemic autoimmunity?

BackgroundAnti-β2glycoprotein I antibodies (a-β2GPI) are involved in the pathogenesis of the Antiphospholipid Syndrome (APS) and are a formal laboratory criterion for the diagnosis of APS. These antibodies however can be...

AB0695 Anti-prothrombin/phosphatidyl-serine complex autoantibodies in antiphospholipid syndrome: Preliminary data using a new ELISA method

BackgroundNew emerging anti-phospholipid (aPL) assays could improve our ability in diagnosing anti-phospholipid syndrome (APS). However, the availability of aPL assays in routine laboratory practice is limited and present available assays...

AB0842 Anti-ku antibodies: Clinical and serological evaluation of 12 patients

BackgroundAnti-Ku antibody is a DNA-binding protein, initially described in the 80’s. Although, reported in a large variety of connective tissue diseases, they are a serologic marker of overlap syndromes, namely...

THU0445 Prevalence of Mixed Connective Tissue Disease in Patients with Persintently Positive Anti-U1 Ribonucleoprotein Antibodies

BackgroundThe mixed connective tissue disease (MCTD) is an infrequent and possibly underdiagnosed connective tissue disease, which is characterized by the presence of high titres of anti-U1 ribonucleoprotein antibodies (anti-RNP). Although,...

SAT0237 Usefulness of the mayor salivary gland ultrasonography in the evaluation of the patient affected by SICCA syndrome

ObjectivesThis study aims to describe the sonographic abnormalities of the major salivary glands in patients evaluated for sicca syndrome.Methods110 consecutive patients with sicca syndrome, 104 females and 6 males, aged...

THU0294 Pulmonary Arterial Hypertension Complicating Primary Sjogren Syndrome: A Rare Association

BackgroundPrimary Sjögren Syndrome (pSS) has an estimated prevalence of 0.2%. Connective tissue disorders are known risk factors for causing pulmonary arterial hypertension (PAH). The association of PAH and pSS is...

FRI0244 Assessing organ involvement and current symptoms as indicators for disease progression in 3047 patient cohort

BackgroundTo improve detection and follow-up of patients with systemic sclerosis, the German Network for Systemic Scleroderma (DNSS) was founded and initiated a registry gathering information on diagnosis, clinical symptoms and...

AB1348 Heterogeneity of patients with anticentromere antibodies

BackgroundAnticentromere antibody (ACA) are considered a serological marker of systemic sclerosis (SSc), in particular of its limited form (lcSSc). They are rarely observed in other connective tissue diseases, but seldom...

AB0234 Nailfold capillary (NC) evaluation in patients with anti-KU antibodies and various connective tissue diseases

BackgroundAnti-Ku antibodies (anti-Ku) are frequently detected in patients with Systemic Sclerosis (SSc),Myositis or Overlap Syndromes. Raynaud’s phenomenon (RP) is one of the main features associated with these antibodies.ObjectivesTo evaluate the...

FRI0373 Decreased flow mediated dilatation and nailfold capillaroscopic findings can be predictors of digital ulcers in systemic sclerosis patients

BackgroundRaynaud Phenomenon (RP) is a clinical marker for microangiopathy. Systemic sclerosis is a chronic autoimmune disease characterized by widespread vasculophaty and tissue fibrosis. Vasculopathy includes vascular remodelling with progressive narrowing...

AB0399 Clinical relevance of antibodies against ss-a/ro specificities in a cohort of 347 patients with connective tissue diseases.

BackgroundAutoantibodies against SS-A/Ro include two specificities (anti-Ro52 and anti-Ro60). These are directed against different antigens. Sera with reactivity against Ro52 are usually precipitin negative and cannot be detected by SS-A/Ro...

OP0248 The prognostic value of scleroderma pattern capillary changes, aticentromere antibodies and anti-topo I antibodies for the development of very early systemic sclerosis - a follow-up study of 497 patients with raynaud’s phenomenon

BackgroundProvisional major criteria for the diagnosis of very early systemic sclerosis (VESSc) proposed of EULAR Scleroderma Trial and Research Group (EUSTAR) are Raynaud’s phenomenon (RP), positive autoantibodies (antinuclear, anticentromere-ACA, antitopoisomerase...

AB0815 Living with connective tissue disease related interstitial lung disease: Patient experiences of the disease over time

BackgroundVery limited information is available about the patient experience of connective tissue disease-related interstitial lung disease (CTD-ILD), in terms of global effects on functioning in various psychological and social spheres...

Patients with non-Jo-1 anti-tRNA-synthetase autoantibodies have worse survival than Jo-1 positive patients

ObjectiveTo compare the cumulative survival and event free survival in patients with Jo-1 versus non-Jo-1 anti-tRNA synthetase autoantibodies (anti-synAb).MethodsAnti-synAb positive patients initially evaluated from 1985 to 2009 were included regardless...

Assessment of T Regulatory Cells and Expanded Profiling of Autoantibodies May Offer Novel Biomarkers for the Clinical Management of Systemic Sclerosis and Undifferentiated Connective Tissue Disease

In order to identify disease biomarkers for the clinical and therapeutic management of autoimmune diseases such as systemic sclerosis (SSc) and undifferentiated connective tissue disease (UCTD), we have explored the setting of peripheral T regulatory (T reg) cells and assessed an expanded profile of autoantibodies in patients with SSc, including either limited (lcSSc) or diffuse (dcSSc) disease, and in patients presenting with clinical signs and symptoms of UCTD. A large panel of serum antibodies directed towards nuclear, nucleolar, and cytoplasmic antigens, including well-recognized molecules as well as less frequently tested antigens, was assessed in order to determine whether different antibody profiles might be associated with distinct clinical settings. Beside the well-recognized association between lcSSc and anti-centromeric or dcSSC and anti-topoisomerase-I antibodies, we found a significative association between dcSSc and anti-SRP or anti-PL-7/12 antibodies. In addition, two distinct groups emerged on the basis of anti-RNP or anti-PM-Scl 75/100 antibody production among UCTD patients. The levels of T reg cells were significantly lower in patients with SSc as compared to patients with UCTD or to healthy controls; in patients with lcSSc, T reg cells were inversely correlated to disease duration, suggesting that their levels may represent a marker of disease progression.

Intrapleural Corticosteroid Injection in Eosinophilic Pleural Effusion Associated with Undifferentiated Connective Tissue Disease

Eosinophilic pleural effusion (EPE) is defined as a pleural effusion that contains at least 10% eosinophils. EPE occurs due to a variety of causes such as blood or air in the pleural space, infection, malignancy, or an autoimmune disease. Undifferentiated connective tissue disease (UCTD) associated with eosinophilic pleural effusion is a rare condition generally characterized by the presence of the signs and symptoms but not fulfilling the existing classification criteria. We report a case involving a 67-year-old man with UCTD and EPE, who has been successfully treated with a single intrapleural corticosteroid injection.

Quality of life as measured by the short-form 36 (SF-36) questionnaire in patients with early systemic sclerosis and undifferentiated connective tissue disease

ObjectiveTo investigate health-related quality of life (HRQOL) in patients affected by early systemic sclerosis (eSSc) and to compare it with that of patients with undifferentiated connective tissue disease (UCTD).MethodsAt baseline, 31 eSSc and 35 UCTD patients underwent clinical evaluation, laboratory investigations, nailfold videocapillaroscopy, echocardiography, and lung function tests. All patients and 40 controls, matched for sex and age completed the Short Form-36 (SF-36) questionnaire and the Health Assessment Questionnaire Disability Index (HAQ-DI).ResultsSF-36 scores were significantly lower in eSSc and UCTD patients than in healthy controls as regards the following domains: physical component score (PCS), mental component score (MCS), physical functioning, role-physical, bodily pain, general health and mental health. PCS was negatively correlated to the HAQ-DI (rho −0.59; p = 0.0004) and ESR >20 mm/h (rho −0.58; p = 0.0006) in eSSc patients. No statistically significant correlation was found between PCS, MCS and HAQ-DI in UCTD patients. Age, sex, disease duration, history of arthritis, low levels of either C3 or C4, a low DLCO (carbon monoxide lung diffusion) and inversion of the E/A ratio were not correlated to PCS and MCS in either eSSc or UCTD patients.ConclusionMany eSSc or UCTD patients perceive they have an impaired quality of life in both physical and mental domains. This condition has to be taken into account by the clinicians involved in the care of these patients.