Scleromyositis

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Scleromyositis or the PM/Scl overlap syndrome is an autoimmune disease in which the immune system attacks the body. Patients with scleromyositis have symptoms of both systemic scleroderma and either polymyositis or dermatomyositis, and is therefore considered an overlap syndrome. Although it is a rare disease, it is one of the more common overlap syndromes seen in scleroderma patients, together with MCTD and synthetase syndrome. Autoantibodies often found in these patients are the anti-PM/Scl (anti-exosome) antibodies.^[1]

The symptoms that are seen most often are typical symptoms of the individual autoimmune diseases and include Raynaud's phenomenon, arthritis, myositis and scleroderma.^[2] Treatment of these patients is therefore strongly dependant on the exact symptoms with which a patient reports to a physician and is similar to treatment for the individual autoimmune disease, often involving either immunosuppressive or immunomodulating drugs.^[3]

[edit] References

1. ^ S Jablonska , M Blaszczyk (1999). "Scleroderma overlap syndromes". Adv Exp Med Biol 455: 85–92. PMID 10599327. 
2. ^ Mahler et al. (2007). "Novel aspects of autoantibodies to the PM/Scl complex: Clinical, genetic and diagnostic insights". Autoimmunity Reviews 6: 432–7. doi:10.1016/j.autrev.2007.01.013. PMID 17643929. 
3. ^ Jablonska et al. (1998). "Scleromyositis: a scleroderma/polymyositis overlap syndrome". Clinical Rheumatology 17: 465–7. doi:10.1007/BF01451281. PMID 9890673.