ANTICENTROMERE ANTIBODIES - A STUDY OF 67 SERA

From a series of 67 sera containing anticentromere antibodies we endeavoured to determine the principal clinical or biological peculiarities of these antibodies. The titers of anticentromere antibodies were usually high, with few differences between patients. Humoral immunity was frequently perturbed, with antinuclear autoantibodies (without anti-Scl70), antimitochondria antibodies, rheumatoid factors, circulating immune complexes, etc. The disease predominated in women (97 %) whose age and duration of symptoms varied considerably. The most frequent clinical manifestation noted in the 47 reports analyzed was Raynaud's phenomenon (93 %) which in most cases (90 %) was part of a complete or incomplete CREST syndrome. Telangiectasias, calcinosis and acrosclerosis were the main witnesses to the duration of these sclerodermas. Our findings were concordant with those of previous studies. However, the frequency of sicca syndrome (76 %) was unexpected, and must be related to 2 laboratory results: the quasi-absence of anti-SSA and anti-SSB antibodies in our patients and the presence of two monoclonal immunoglobulins (IgM kappa and IgG lambda). There may be some degree of independence between the sicca syndrome and the sclerodermal manifestations.