Abstract
Sera from fifty-six patients with discrete speckled pattern in the indirect immunofluorescence (IF) test using HEp-2 cells as substrate were tested for antibody to centromere (ACA). Sera from fifty-four of these patients were found to contain ACA in the indirect IF tests using Wil-2 cell line. Thus, the discrete speckled patterns of fluorescence on HEp-2 cells correlated well with positive ACA IF tests on Wil-2 cell line.
ACA was found in sera from fourteen patients with progressive systemic sclerosis (PSS), seven with Raynaud's disease, nine with Sjögren syndrome, seven with SLE, three with RA and fourteen with various diseases. Thus, ACA tend to present most frequently in sera from patients with autoimmune diseases including PSS, SLE, RA, Raynaud's disease and Sjögren syndrome, but was also observed in sera from patients with none-autoimmune heart diseases.
Contrary to the previous reports none of the patients with ACA had all of features of CREST syndrome (calcinosis, Raynaud's phenomenon, esophageal dysmotility, sclerodactyly and telangiectasia), though many patients had Raynaud's phenomenon.
