Is there an immunologic component to the fibrositis syndrome?

PFS is an enigmatic disorder whose etiology remains largely unknown. Its clinical spectrum probably encompasses a heterogeneous group of patients displaying multifactorial symptomatology. Recent evaluation of PFS patients, on both a clinical and laboratory basis, suggests that there is a subpopulation of these patients who exhibit a low grade connective tissue disorder. This group of patients exhibit many of the clinical features expected with rheumatic diseases such as SLE and Sjögren's syndrome. They can be distinguished on a clinical basis from other PFS patients and from patients with the CEBV syndrome. Their disease may be disablingly painful and resistant to many therapeutic modalities. Results of newer information reviewed here suggests that these patients may have EVP on the basis of a peripheral, low grade, quasi-inflammatory process that may have a neurologic and an immune dysregulatory component. The implications of such a mechanism of injury are profound and potentially impact on the treatment of this group of patients.