Humans ; Cholangitis, Sclerosing/diagnosis* ; Immunoglobulin G ; Hormones ; Diagnosis, Differential ; Autoimmune Diseases

The patient was a 55-year-old man who was admitted to hospital with "progressive myalgia and weakness for 4 months, and exacerbated for 1 month". Four months ago, he presented with persistent shoulder girdle myalgia and elevated creatine kinase (CK) at routine physical examination, which fluctuated from 1 271 to 2 963 U/L after discontinuation of statin treatment. Progressive myalgia and weakness worsened seriously to breath-holding and profuse sweating 1 month ago. The patient was post-operative for renal cancer, had previous diabetes mellitus and coronary artery disease medical history, had a stent implanted by percutaneous coronary intervention and was on long-term medication with aspirin, atorvastatin and metoprolol. Neurological examination showed pressure pain in the scapularis and pelvic girdle muscles, and V- grade muscle strength in the proximal extremities. Strongly positive of anti-HMGCR antibody was detected. Muscle magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) T2-weighted image and short time inversion recovery sequences (STIR) showed high signals in the right vastus lateralis and semimembranosus muscles. There was a small amount of myofibrillar degeneration and necrosis, CD4 positive inflammatory cells around the vessels and among myofibrils, MHC-Ⅰ infiltration, and multifocal lamellar deposition of C5b9 in non-necrotic myofibrils of the right quadriceps muscle pathological manifestation. According to the clinical manifestation, imageological change, increased CK, blood specific anti-HMGCR antibody and biopsy pathological immune-mediated evidence, the diagnosis of anti-HMGCR immune-mediated necrotizing myopathy was unequivocal. Methylprednisolone was administrated as 48 mg daily orally, and was reduced to medication discontinuation gradually. The patient's complaint of myalgia and breathlessness completely disappeared after 2 weeks, the weakness relief with no residual clinical symptoms 2 months later. Follow-up to date, there was no myalgia or weakness with slightly increasing CK rechecked. The case was a classical anti-HMGCR-IMNM without swallowing difficulties, joint symptoms, rash, lung symptoms, gastrointestinal symptoms, heart failure and Raynaud's phenomenon. The other clinical characters of the disease included CK as mean levels >10 times of upper limit of normal, active myogenic damage in electromyography, predominant edema and steatosis of gluteus and external rotator groups in T2WI and/or STIR at advanced disease phase except axial muscles. The symptoms may occasionally improve with discontinuation of statins, but glucocorticoids are usually required, and other treatments include a variety of immunosuppressive therapies such as methotrexate, rituximab and intravenous gammaglobulin.
Male ; Humans ; Middle Aged ; Autoantibodies ; Myositis/diagnosis* ; Autoimmune Diseases ; Muscle, Skeletal/pathology* ; Hydroxymethylglutaryl-CoA Reductase Inhibitors/therapeutic use* ; Necrosis/pathology* ; Muscular Diseases/drug therapy*

Autoantibodies are important biomarkers of autoimmune diseases and crucial for disease diagnosis, differential diagnosis, and the evaluation of disease activity and prognosis. Specifying the requirement of quality control for detecting autoantibodies is essential for accurately reporting relevant results. In 2023, National Clinical Research Center for Dermatologic and Immunologic Diseases (Peking Union Medical College Hospital), Experimental Diagnosis Research Committee, Rheumatology and Immunology Physicians Committee of Chinese Medical Doctor Association, Autoantibodies Detection Committee, Chinese Rheumatism Data Center invited relevant clinical and laboratory experts to develop the current consensus based on the national standards, the industry guidelines, the national situation, and the experience of quality control regarding autoantibody detection. This consensus aims to standardize the quality control of autoantibody detection in relevant laboratories in China.
Humans ; Autoantibodies ; Consensus ; Autoimmune Diseases/diagnosis* ; Quality Control ; Reference Standards

Child ; Humans ; Encephalitis/therapy* ; Hashimoto Disease/therapy* ; Autoimmune Diseases of the Nervous System/diagnosis*

OBJECTIVE: To investigate the clinical manifestations and laboratory indicators of anti-Sjögren's-syndrome-related antigen A (SSA) antibody associated fetal cardiac disease. METHODS: Pregnant women hospitalized at Peking University People's Hospital from January 2013 to July 2023 were included. Eleven patients with anti-SSA antibody positive were eventually diagnosed with fetal cardiac di-sease. And patients with anti-SSA antibody positive without fetal cardiac disease were selected as controls. Clinical manifestations, laboratory indications and drug usage were compared between the two groups. RESULTS: Among these 11 patients, congenital heart block was confirmed in seven, which was the most common manifestations of fetal cardiac malformation. The proportion of the patients diagnosed with autoimmune disease before pregnancy in fetal cardiac malformation group was significantly lower than that in the control group (P=0.032), while most of the patients in the fetal cardiac malformation group received immune-related examinations for the first time because of this time's fetal cardiac diagnosis. While most of the patients in the control group received routine examinations because of autoimmune diseases diagnosed before pregnancy. During pregnancy, the white blood cell level [(9.29±2.58)×10⁹/L vs. (7.10±1.90×10⁹/L, t=3.052, P=0.004], erythrocyte sedimentation rate [(49.50 (48.00, 51.00) mm/h vs. 23.00 (15.00, 30.25) mm/h, Z=-2.251, P=0.024], IgA level [3.46 (2.30, 5.06) g/L vs. 2.13 (1.77, 2.77) g/L, Z=-2.181, P=0.029], and antinuclear antibody (ANA) titers [1∶320 (1∶160, 1∶320) vs. 1∶80 (1∶40, 1∶160), Z=-3.022, P=0.003] were significantly higher in fetal cardiac malformation group than in the control group. The proportion of positive anti-SSB antibody during pregnancy did not show a statistically significant difference between the two groups (37.5% vs. 7.7%, P=0.053). There was no significant difference in hydroxychloroquine dosage and initiation time between the two groups. The dosage of prednisone in the second and third trimesters was significantly higher in the cardiac malformation group than that in the control group, but there was no significant difference in the first trimester. CONCLUSION Fetal cardiac disease is rare in pregnant women with anti-SSA antibody. White blood cell, erythrocyte sedimentation rate, IgA, the titer of ANA positivity were higher in the fetal heart disease group during pregnancy. Since congenital heart block is difficult to reverse, its prevention and monitoring are more important than remedial treatment.
Humans ; Female ; Pregnancy ; Sjogren's Syndrome/complications* ; Autoimmune Diseases ; Heart Block/diagnosis* ; Autoantibodies ; Antibodies, Antinuclear ; Immunoglobulin A

Connective tissue disease (CTD) are closely related to liver abnormality. CTD can affect the liver causing various degrees of liver injury, coexist with other liver diseases, especially autoimmune liver disease (ALD). Medications for CTD can also lead to liver injury or reactivate the hepatitis B virus. CTD patients can also be positive for ALD-related autoantibodies without corresponding manifestation; and vis versa. The diagnosis and differential diagnosis should be made on integrating clinical presentation, laboratory, imaging, and histological studies, not solely relying on autoantibody positivity.
Autoantibodies ; Autoimmune Diseases/diagnosis* ; Connective Tissue Diseases/diagnosis* ; Diagnosis, Differential ; Humans ; Liver

IgG4-related disease (IgG4-RD) is an immune-mediated condition associated with chronic fibroinflammatory lesions that can affect nearly any organ. IgG4-related hepatobiliary and pancreatic diseases are IgG4-RD involving the hepatobiliary and pancreatic system, which is characterized with elevated serum IgG4 concentrations, large numbers of IgG4 positive lymphoplasma cells infiltration in affected organs, storiform fibrosis, and imaging changes of organ morphology. Due to the lack of reliable biomarkers, histopathology is still an important basis for diagnosis. The pathogenesis of IgG4-related hepatobiliary and pancreatic diseases has not been clarified. This review focuses on the recent advances in intestinal microecology-immunology, host genetics-immunity and recurrence monitoring of IgG4-related hepatobiliary and pancreatic diseases.
Autoimmune Diseases/diagnosis* ; Gastrointestinal Microbiome ; Humans ; Immunoglobulin G ; Immunoglobulin G4-Related Disease/pathology* ; Pancreatic Diseases

INTRODUCTION: The antinuclear antibody (ANA) test is a screening test for systemic autoimmune rheumatic disease (SARD). We hypothesised that the presence of anti-DFS70 in ANA-positive samples was associated with a false-positive ANA test and negatively associated with SARD. METHODS: A retrospective analysis of patient samples received for ANA testing from 1 January 2016 to 30 June 2016 was performed. Patient samples underwent ANA testing via indirect immunofluorescence method and anti-DFS70 testing using enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay. RESULTS: Among a total of 645 ANA-positive samples, the majority (41.7%) were positive at a titre of 1:80. The commonest nuclear staining pattern (65.5%) was speckled. Only 9.5% of ANA-positive patients were diagnosed with SARD. Anti-DFS70 was found to be present in 10.0% of ANA-positive patients. The majority (51/59, 86.4%) of patients did not have SARD. Seven patients had positive ANA titre > 1:640, the presence of anti-double stranded DNA and/or anti-Ro60. The presence of anti-DFS70 in ANA-positive patients was not associated with the absence of SARD (Fisher's exact test, p = 0.245). CONCLUSION The presence of anti-DFS70 was associated with a false-positive ANA test in 8.6% of our patients. Anti-DFS70 was not associated with the absence of SARD.
Adaptor Proteins, Signal Transducing ; Antibodies, Antinuclear ; Autoimmune Diseases/diagnosis* ; Humans ; Retrospective Studies ; Rheumatic Diseases/diagnosis* ; Transcription Factors

In 2015, the first Chinese consensus on the diagnosis and management of primary sclerosing cholangitis was issued. In the past years, more data have emerged from the literature. Herein, the Autoimmune Liver Disease Group of the Chinese Society of Hepatology organized an expert group to review the evidence and updated the recommendations to formulate the guidelines. There are 21 recommendations on PSC clinical practice. To facilitate the differentiation between PSC and IgG4-related sclerosing cholangitis, 10 recommendations on IgG4-SC are also attached. These guidelines aim to provide a working reference for the management of PSC and IgG4-SC.
Autoimmune Diseases/diagnosis* ; Cholangitis, Sclerosing/therapy* ; Diagnosis, Differential ; Humans ; Immunoglobulin G

In 2015, the Chinese Society of Hepatology and Chinese Society of Gastroenterology issued the consensus on the diagnosis and management of cholestatic liver diseases. In the past years, more data have emerged from clinical practice. Herein, the Autoimmune Liver Disease Group of the Chinese Society of Hepatology organized an expert group to review the evidence and updated the recommendations to formulate the guidelines. There are 22 recommendations on clinical practice of cholestatic liver diseases. The guidelines aim to provide a working reference for the management of cholestatic liver diseases.
Autoimmune Diseases/diagnosis* ; Cholestasis/therapy* ; Consensus ; Gastroenterology ; Humans ; Liver Diseases/therapy*