Autoantibodies in idiopathic inflammatory dermatomyopathies

Idiopathic inflammatory dermatomyopathies have been historically defined by broad clinical and pathological criteria,whose spectrum of clinical illness includes clinically amyopathic dermatomyositis,classic dermatomyositis and polymyositis.Clinical manifestations of this entity are diverse with various degrees of muscular,cutaneous and pulmonary involvement.Myositis-specific autoantibodies and myositis-associated autoantibodies are frequently detected in sera of patients with idiopathic inflammatory dermatomyopathies,some of which are closely associated with the clinical characteristics and specific for the diagnosis of idiopathic inflammatory dermatomyopathies. Recently, some autoantibodies such as anti-clinically amyopathic dermatomyositis (CADM) 140 antibody and anti-small ubiquitin-like modifier activating enzyme (SAE) antibody have been detected in sera of patients with idiopathic inflammatory dermatomyopathies,which are not closely associated with the initiation of myositis and should not be classified as myositis-specific autoantibodies,but as an independent subset of antibodies specific for idiopathic inflammatory dermatomyopathies. Key words: Dermatomyositis; Autoantibodies; Myositis