Anti-Jo-1 antisynthetase syndrome

Given a lack of population-based studies, we report an epidemiological-clinic study of anti-Jo-1 antisynthetase syndrome (ASS).

To study a retrospective cohort of a single-center from 1980 to 2010. Clinical-laboratory and demographic data were obtained from medical files. All patients fulfilled the Bohan and Peter criteria (1975) and presented anti-Jo-1, articular, muscle and lung involvement. Eighteen patients with anti-Jo-1 ASS were analyzed.

The mean age at disease onset was 39.9 ± 15.7 years and average disease duration was 9.7 ± 7.0 years. All subjects were white, and 94.4% were female. Constitutional symptoms occurred in 50 % of cases. There was cutaneous and gastrointestinal tract involvement in 66.6% and 55.6% of cases, respectively. No cases manifested neurologic or cardiac involvement. Half of the patients showed incipient pneumopathy, ground-glass opacities and basal pulmonary fibrosis. There was one case of tuberculosis, three of herpes zoster and one of non-Hodgkin lymphoma. One death occurred due to sepsis shock (hospital bronchopneumonia). All patients received prednisone (1mg/kg/day) and 12 (66.7%) participants received methyl prednisolone pulse therapy (1g/day, 3 days). Various immunosuppressants were used as corticosteroid tapers, depending on tolerance, side effects and/or refractoriness. Although disease relapse (clinical and/or laboratory) occurred in 87.5% of cases, 12 out of 16 patients (75%) were in disease remission at study endpoint.

In the present study, almost all patients were white females and the disease relapse rate was high.