Introduction: Myositis is an autoimmune disease characterised by proximal muscle weakness.
Aim: The aim of the authors was to determine the frequency of dermatomyositis-specific autoantibodies (anti-Mi-2, anti-transcriptional intermediary factor 1 gamma, anti-nuclear matrix protein 2, anti-small ubiquitin-like modifier activating enzyme, anti-melanoma differentiation-associated gene) in a Hungarian myositis population and to compare the clinical features with the characteristics of patients without myositis-specific antibodies.
Method: Antibodies were detected using immunoblot and immunoprecipitation.
Results: Of the 330 patients with myositis, 48 patients showed dermatomyositis-specific antibody positivity. The frequency of antibodies in these patients was lower than those published in literature Retrospective analysis of clinical findings and medical history revealed that patients with dermatomyositis-specific autoantibody had more severe muscle weakness and severe skin lesions at the beginning of the disease.
Conclusions: Antibodies seem to be useful markers for distinct clinical subsets, for predicting the prognosis of myositis and the effectiveness of the therapy.
Keywords: anti-Mi-2; anti-NXP2; anti-TIF1-γ; anti-TIF1γ; myositis; myositis-specific autoantibody; myositisspecifikus autoantitest.