Abstract
“Rhupus syndrome” is a rare clinical condition, which is related to anti-CCP antibody, characterized by overlapping clinical and immunologic features of rheumatoid arthritis and systemic lupus erythematosus. Previous reports mentioned that patients have more RA-associated damage, and little organic damage associated with SLE. The severe organ damage, especially central nervous system involvement has been reported to be rare in patients with rhupus syndrome. Here, we report a very rare concurrence of RA, SLE and diffuse lupus encephalopathy in a Chinese woman.
References
Simon JA, Granados J, Cabiedes J, Morales JR, Varela JA (2002) Clinical and immunogenetic characterization of Mexican patients with ‘rhupus’. Lupus 11:287–292. doi:10.1191/0961203302lu189oa
Panush RS, Edwards NL, Longley S, Webster E (1988) ‘Rhupus’ syndrome. Arch Intern Med 148:1633–1636. doi:10.1001/archinte.148.7.1633
Kantor G, Bickel Y, Barnett E (1969) Coexistence of systemic lupus erythematosus and rheumatoid arthritis. Report of a case and review of the literature, with clinical, pathologic and serologic observations. Am J Med 47:433–444. doi:10.1016/0002-9343(69)90227-7
van Vugt RM, Derksen RH, Kater L, Bijlsma JW (1998) Deforming arthropathy or lupus and rhupus hands in systemic lupus erythematosus. Ann Rheum Dis 57:540–544. doi:10.1136/ard.57.9.540
Fernandez A, Quintana G, Matteson EL et al (2004) Lupus arthropathy: historical evolution from deforming arthritis to rhupus. Clin Rheumatol 23:523–526. doi:10.1007/s10067-004-0951-2
Sundaramurthy SG, Karsevar MP, van Vollenhoven RF (1999) Influence of hormonal events on disease expression in patients with the combination of systemic lupus erythematosus and rheumatoid arthritis. J Clin Rheumatol 5:9–16. doi:10.1097/00124743-199902000-00002
Chan MT, Owen P, Dunphy J et al (2008) Associations of erosive arthritis with anti-cyclic citrullinated peptide antibodies and MHC class II alleles in systemic lupus erythematosus. J Rheumatol 35:77–83
Isshi K, Hirohata S, Hashimoto T, Miyashita H (1994) Systemic lupus erythematosus presenting with diffuse low density lesions in the cerebral white matter on computed axial tomography scans: its implication in the pathogenesis of diffuse central nervous system lupus. J Rheumatol 21:1758–1762
van Dam A (1991) Diagnosis and pathogenesis of CNS lupus. Rheumatol Int 11:1–11. doi:10.1007/BF00290244
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Wang, JG., Tang, HH., Tan, CY. et al. Diffuse lupus encephalopathy in a case of rhupus syndrome. Rheumatol Int 30, 961–963 (2010). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00296-009-1007-3
Received:
Accepted:
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00296-009-1007-3