IDIOPATHIC INFLAMMATORY MYOPATHY OF THE ANTISYNTHETASE (JO-1) TYPE ASSOCIATED WITH NONCASEATING GRANULOMAS

The idiopathic inflammatory myopathies are a heterogeneous group of sy ndromes that share the finding of chronic muscle inflammation. Recentl y, serologic subtyping of autoantibodies found in patients with these syndromes has been used to identify distinct clinical entities. We des cribe a 36-year-old woman who, based on the findings of polymyositis d ocumented by both electromyography and muscle biopsy, features of Rayn aud's phenomenon, symmetric polyarthritis, ''mechanic's hands,'' and J o-1 antibody positivity, was considered to have the antisynthetase sub set of idiopathic inflammatory myopathy. In addition, the patient had granulomatous synovitis, and noncaseating granulomas were found in a b reast nodule. This is the first published report of granuloma formatio n in the antisynthetase syndrome.