Clinical characteristics of the cohort of patients with systemic sclerosis and positive anti-RNA polymerase III antibodies from the José de San Martín Hospital de Clínicas

Autores: Rossio Gardenia Ortuño Lobo, Tamara Graciela Arias, María Pino, Gustavo Medina, Verónica Malah, María José López Meiller

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Introduction: in systemic sclerosis (SS), autoantibody positivity is useful for diagno-sis and classification, being mutually self-exclusive.

Objectives: estimate the prevalence of positive anti-RNA polymerase III (anti-RNAP III) antibodies in patients with negative anti-topoisomerase I (ATA) and anti-centromere (ACA) and describe the clinical characteristics.

Materials and methods: bidirectional, descriptive, single-center study. We included pa-tients over 18 years of age who met the American College of Rheumatology and Euro-pean League Against Rheumatism (ACR/EULAR) 2013 classification criteria with ATA and ACA negative. anti-RNAP III was determined by ELISA, QUANTA lite RNA POL III Inova Diagnostics®. Anti-RNAP III positive patients were compared with anti-RNAP III negative patients.

Results: 31 patients were included. 48.4% (15/31) anti-RNAP III positive and 51.6% (16/31) negative. The prevalence of positive anti RNAP-III was 5.06%. A higher proportion of digital ulcers (40% vs 25%), amputations (13.3% vs 6.3%), arthritis (33% vs 18.8%), tendon rub (20% vs 7.1%) and gastric antral vascular ectasia (GAVE) were observed (16.7% vs 0%) in the anti-RNAP III positive group.

Conclusions: due to its possible role as a prognostic marker, it seems essential to know the characteristics of our population and especially of our hospital.