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Development of antisynthetase syndrome in a patient with rheumatoid arthritis

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Abstract

Rheumatoid arthritis (RA) and antisynthetase syndrome (ASS) are distinct clinical syndromes, and their co-occurrence is rarely encountered. The authors report the case of a 56-year-old female patient with RA of 3 years duration who suddenly developed ASS, and include a review of the literature. The patient was diagnosed with ASS based on; positivity for anti-histidyl-tRNA synthetase (Jo-1) antibody, interstitial lung disease, polyarthritis, and mechanic’s hands. High-dose corticosteroid and pulse intravenous cyclophosphamide were used to control the ASS. This case demonstrates that ASS should be considered during clinical presentations due to its potential overlap with RA.

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Acknowledgments

This work was supported by grants from the Korea Research Foundation (KRF-2008-331-E00143), which was funded by the Korean government (MOEHRD), the Chonnam National University Hospital Research Institute of Clinical Medicine (#CRI09025-1), and the Brain Korea 21 Project, Center for Biomedical Human Resources at Chonnam National University.

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Correspondence to Yong-Wook Park.

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C.-K. Park and T.-J. Kim contributed equally to this work.

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Park, CK., Kim, TJ., Cho, YN. et al. Development of antisynthetase syndrome in a patient with rheumatoid arthritis. Rheumatol Int 31, 529–532 (2011). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00296-009-1222-y

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00296-009-1222-y

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