CLINICAL SPECTRUM OF PATIENTS WITH ANTICENTROMERE ANTIBODIES

In order to define the clinical associations and diagnostic meaning of anticentromere antibodies in a random population of patients, clinica l and serological findings were studied with the evolution of 16 patie nts selected only because of their positiveness to anticentromere anti bodies, detected by indirect immunofluorescence on HEp-2 cells and con firmed in chromosome spreads of HMcB cells. The most frequent diagnosi s was systemic sclerosis in 9 patients (56%) especially in its variety Limited Cutaneous Systemic Sclerosis /CREST (7 patients). The rest of the cases (44%) showed different diseases (3 isolated Raynaud's pheno mena, 1 Sjogren's syndrome, 1 seronegative polyarthritis, 1 undifferen tiated connective tissue disease and a probable sarcoidosis). Therefor e, even tough the more frequent clinical entity associated to anticent romere antibodies was systemic sclerosis and especially its variety Li mited Cutaneous Systemic Sclerosis /CREST its diagnostic specificity i s relatively low. The most frequent clinical association in our group of patients with positive anticentromere antibodies has been Raynaud's phenomena, alone or associated to other processes, being found in all but one of the studied patients (94%).