Lower extremity lipedema, upper extremity lipodystrophy and severe calcinosis complicating juvenile dermatomyositis.

Juvenile dermatomyositis (JDM) is a rare but complex and potentially life-threatening autoimmune disease of childhood. Significant proportions of patients have residual weakness, muscle atrophy, joint contractures, and calcinosis. Recently, new clinical findings, such as lipodystrophy accompanied with increased fat deposition in certain areas, have been reported. So far, it is not known whether the redistribution of body fat may be the type of lipedema of lower extremity. We describe a 39-year-old woman who was diagnosed with JDM at the age of 7. Later she developed symmetrical lipodystrophy of upper extremities and symmetrical lipedema of lower extremities (making 2 and 58.3 % of total body fat mass, respectively), with multiple calcified nodules in the subcutaneous tissues. These nodules gradually increased in size despite therapy. Capillaroscopy findings showed scleroderma-like abnormalities. ANA and anti-U1RNP antibodies were positive. Similar cases with simultaneous occurrence of the lipedema of lower extremities, lipodystrophy of upper extremities, and severe calcinosis complicating JDM have not been published so far. We showed that the calcinosis and lipodystrophy were associated with short duration of active disease. Also, we display case that raises the question whether it is possible overlapping autoimmune diseases revealed during follow-up.

The value of pattern capillary changes and antibodies to predict the development of systemic sclerosis in patients with primary Raynaud's phenomenon.

The aim of this study is to assess the prognostic value of major provisional criteria for the development of systemic sclerosis (SSc) in primary Raynaud's phenomenon (RP) patients. We retrospectively studied the chart of 497 patients with primary RP in whom anticentromere (ACA) and antitopoisomerase I (ATA) antibodies tests and a capillary reading were available. Sensitivity, specificity, positive predictive value, negative predictive value, positive likelihood ratios (LHR+), negative likelihood ratios (LHR-), odds ratio (OR), and area under the receiver operating characteristics curve (AUC) of those criteria were assessed to predict the development of SSc. During the average follow-up of 2.3 ± 1.9 years, 159 (32 %) patients evolved to SSc, 245 (49.3 %) evolved to other connective tissue diseases, and 93 (18.7 %) patients did not progress. The SSc pattern predicted SSc satisfactorily (LHR+ 4.12, LHR- 0.07, OR 63, AUC 0.819; P < 0.001). ACA were not significantly associated with the development of SSc (LHR+ 1.19, LHR- 0.9, OR 1.32, AUC 0.538, P = 0.156). ATA were significantly associated with the development of SSc (LHR+ 9.32, LHR- 0.67, OR 15.13, AUC 0.777; P < 0.001). Both SSc pattern and ACA or ATA were significantly associated with the development of SSc (LHR+ 2.98, LHR- 0.70, OR 4.2, AUC 0.674; P < 0.001 vs. LHR+ 16, LHR- 0.68, OR 24, AUC 0.819; P < 0.001, respectively). SSc pattern or ATA as independent risk factors, as well as following two parameters together (SSc pattern and ATA or SSc pattern and ACA) were good predictors for the development of SSc.

Late appearance and exacerbation of primary Raynaud's phenomenon attacks can predict future development of connective tissue disease: a retrospective chart review of 3,035 patients.

To assess the prognostic value of the age at onset of Raynaud's (RP) and of a history of exacerbation of RP attacks for the development of connective tissue disease (CTD) in patients initially found to have primary Raynaud's. 3,035 patients with primary RP (2,702 women and 333 men) were followed for an average of 4.8 years (range from 1 to 10 years). At baseline and every 6 months, they were screened for signs and symptoms of CTD. At 4.8 years of follow-up, 54.7 % patients remained as primary RP, 8.1 % had developed suspected secondary RP, and 37.2 % had developed a definite CTD. Primary RP patients had an earlier onset of RP (mean age of 32.2 years) than those with suspected (mean age 36.5 years, P = .007) or definite secondary RP associated with CTD (mean age of 39.8 years, P = .004). RP beginning before the age of forty was not significantly associated with the development of CTD. Conversely, the appearance of RP after the age of 40 was significantly associated with the development of CTD (P = .00001). Worsening of RP attacks predicted the development of CTD, especially systemic sclerosis (relative risk [RR] of 1.42), scleroderma overlap syndrome (RR of 1.18), and mixed CTD (RR of 1.18). Patients whose onset of RP occurred past 40 years of age and those with worsening RP attacks were at risk for the future development of CTD.

Is there a difference in systemic lupus erythematosus with and without Raynaud's phenomenon?

The aim of this study was to assess the association between Raynaud's phenomenon (RP) and specific capillaroscopic findings in patients with SLE and particular clinical manifestations of the disease. A total of 79 patients with SLE were included in the study: 44 of them (43 women) with RP and 35 (32 women) age-, sex-, and disease-duration-matched patients with SLE without RP. Demographic variables, clinical manifestations, laboratory and nailfold capillaroscopy findings were compared between the two groups. Central nervous systemic involvements (P = 0.0038) and peripheral neuropathy (P = 0.0336) were significantly more common in SLE patients with RP, while secondary Sjögren's syndrome (P = 0.0363) was more common in SLE patients without RP. RP occurred in 52 % of patients before SLE onset while 48 % of patients developed RP after they had been diagnosed with SLE. Arthritis/arthralgia (P = 0.0073) was significantly more common in patients who had been diagnosed with RP before the onset of SLE, while mucosal ulcers were more common in patients who contracted RP after the onset of SLE (P = 0.0258). Enlarged capillaries (P = 0.0482), presence of avascular areas (P = 0.0476), capillary hemorrhages (P = 0.0482), and granular blood flow (P = 0.0482) were more common in patients with SLE who also suffered from RP, than in patients with SLE without RP. The frequency of normal (63.6 vs. 82.9 %, P = 0.100) and nonspecific (25 vs. 17.1 %, P = 0.5696) capillaroscopy findings were similar in either groups. Scleroderma-like pattern of capillaroscopy finding was only found in patients with RP [(11.4 %), P = 0.0482]. RP in our patients with SLE was associated with specific clinical manifestations, indicating that prognostic relevance of RP in SLE should be evaluated.

Scleroderma pattern of nailfold capillary changes as predictive value for the development of a connective tissue disease: a follow-up study of 3,029 patients with primary Raynaud's phenomenon.

To assess the prognostic value of scleroderma pattern of nailfold capillary changes for the development of connective tissue diseases (CTD) in subjects with primary Raynaud's phenomenon (RP). The study included 3,029 consecutive patients with primary RP who had been followed at 6-month intervals during the mean of 4.8 years. The pathological features of nailfold capillaroscopy were recorded in all patients who had neither clinical nor serological signs of a CTD. In patients who developed CTD, capillary changes obtained 6 months prior to diagnosis were analyzed. A possible relationship between capillary changes and the presence of associated CTD was assessed. At the end of follow-up, 1,660 (54,8%) patients have still the primary RP, 246 (8,1%) had suspected secondary RP, and 1,123 (37,1%) patients developed CTD (363 undifferentiated CTD, 263 systemic sclerosis, 143 systemic lupus erythematosus, 106 rheumatoid arthritis, 102 Sjögren's syndrome, 61 overlap syndrome, 30 vasculitides, 24 mixed CTD, 19 polymyositis, 7 dermatomyositis, and 5 primary antiphospholipid syndrome). Scleroderma pattern were significantly associated with the development of systemic sclerosis [P = .00001, sensitivity 94%, specificity 92%, positive predictive value 52%, negative predictive value 99%, and odds ratio 163 (95% CI, 97,9-271,5)], as well as dermatomyositis (P = .0004), overlap syndrome with signs of systemic sclerosis (P = .0001), and mixed connective tissue disease (P = .007). Capillary microscopy is effective method for differentiation between primary and secondary RP and useful tool for the prediction of scleroderma spectrum disorders in RP patients.