TY - JOUR T1 - Anti-dense Fine Speckled 70 Autoantibodies in Japanese Children with Dermatomyositis, Localized Scleroderma, and Idiopathic Arthritis with Iridocyclitis JF - The Journal of Rheumatology JO - J Rheumatol SP - 711 LP - 712 DO - 10.3899/jrheum.161409 VL - 44 IS - 5 AU - YOSHINAO MURO AU - NAOMI IWATA AU - YOSHIHITO TANAKA AU - MASANARI KODERA AU - MICHIHIRO KONO AU - MASASHI AKIYAMA Y1 - 2017/05/01 UR - http://www.jrheum.org/content/44/5/711.abstract N2 - To the Editor:We read with interest the article by Schmeling, et al1. They screened a large number of sera from children with antinuclear antibody (ANA)–associated rheumatic disease (AARD) and related conditions, as well as sera from a reference cohort, for anti-dense fine speckled 70 autoantibodies (anti-DFS70ab). They showed that the frequency of anti-DFS70ab in healthy children (3/145, 2.1%) was within the lower range of that reported in adults, but that anti-DFS70ab were found at significantly higher frequencies in children with localized scleroderma (LS; 4/29, 13.8%), juvenile dermatomyositis (JDM; 2/11, 18.2%), and uveitis (3/26, 11.5%). For 331 patients with systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE) and 41 patients with systemic sclerosis, they investigated concomitant AARD-associated autoantibodies and found that only 6 patients with SLE had isolated anti-DFS70ab. This result fits the theory that anti-DFS70ab positivity in AARD is usually associated with additional AARD-related antibodies2. However, because their disease cohort was small, except for SLE and juvenile idiopathic arthritis (JIA; 202 patients), the higher frequency of the antibodies in … Address correspondence to Dr. Y. Muro, Division of Connective Tissue Disease and Autoimmunity, Department of Dermatology, Nagoya University Graduate School of Medicine, 65 Tsurumai-cho, Showa-ku, Nagoya 466-8550, Japan. E-mail: ymuro{at}med.nagoya-u.ac.jp ER -