RT Journal Article SR Electronic T1 Associated Autoimmune Diseases in Systemic Sclerosis Define a Subset of Patients with Milder Disease: Results from 2 Large Cohorts of European Caucasian Patients JF The Journal of Rheumatology JO J Rheumatol FD The Journal of Rheumatology SP jrheum.090815 DO 10.3899/jrheum.090815 A1 Jérôme Avouac A1 Paolo Airò A1 Philippe Dieude A1 Paola Caramaschi A1 Kiet Tiev A1 Elisabeth Diot A1 Jean Sibilia A1 Susanna Cappelli A1 Brigitte Granel A1 Alessandra Vacca A1 Julien Wipff A1 Olivier Meyer A1 André Kahan A1 Marco Matucci-Cerinic A1 Yannick Allanore YR 2010 UL http://www.jrheum.org/content/early/2010/01/27/jrheum.090815.abstract AB Objective To assess the prevalence and potential associations with the systemic sclerosis (SSc) phenotype of additional autoimmune diseases (AID). Methods A multicenter study was performed in France and Italy to recruit consecutive European Caucasian patients with SSc systematically assessed for the coexistence of predefined AID known to occur with connective tissue diseases. Results We recruited 585 French and 547 Italian patients with SSc. Specific AID were found in 114/585 (19%) French and 179/547 (33%) Italians with SSc (p < 0.0001). Sjögren’s syndrome and thyroiditis were the predominant AID in both cohorts (12% for Sjögren’s syndrome and 6% for thyroiditis in the combined populations). The frequency of myositis, primary biliary cirrhosis, rheumatoid arthritis, and systemic lupus erythematosus was low (< 4%) and similar in both cohorts. The coexistence of at least 1 of the AID in the whole cohort was associated in multivariate analysis with the limited cutaneous subtype, the presence of antinuclear antibodies, and a lower prevalence of digital ulcers. Conclusion Our study shows that 21% of this large series of European Caucasian patients with SSc have developed at least 1 AID. This latter condition identified a subset of patients with milder disease. Thus, associations of AID and autoimmune background in SSc have to be considered for further therapeutic and biological investigations in SSc.