Are These Truly Rheumatoid Arthritis or Antisynthetase Syndrome Cases?

Rheumatoid arthritis: Disease or syndrome?

Rheumatoid arthritis (RA) has been described in the medical literature for over two hundred years, but its etiology remains unknown. RA displays phenotypic heterogeneity, and it is a relatively prevalent clinical entity: it affects approximately 1% of the population, resulting in enormous pathologic sequelae. Earlier studies targeting the cause(s) of RA suggested potential infectious involvemen...

Antisynthetase syndrome

In Antisynthetase Syndrome, ACPA Are Associated With Severe and Erosive Arthritis

Anticitrullinated peptide/protein antibodies (ACPA), which are highly specific for rheumatoid arthritis (RA), may be found in some patients with other systemic autoimmune diseases. The clinical significance of ACPA in patients with antisynthetase syndrome (ASS), a systemic disease characterized by the association of myositis, interstitial lung disease, polyarthralgia, and/or polyarthritis, has ...

The Antisynthetase Syndrome

The antisynthetase syndrome (ASS) was first described by Marguerie and coworkers in 1990 as a triad of polymyositis, diffuse interstitial lung disease (ILD) and serum autoantibodies to aminoacyl transfer RNA synthetases (anti-ARS) (1). Later, cohort studies have indicated that 20-25 % of patients diagnosed with polymyositis (PM) or dermatomyositis (DM) have antiARS antibodies (2-4). In most cas...

Drug-induced antisynthetase syndrome.

We present a case of antisynthetase syndrome whose predominant feature was fibrosing alveolitis and which may have been drug-induced. This responded well to steroids and cyclophosphamide.