Antisynthetase Syndrome and Autoantibodies: A Literature Review and Report of 4 Cases

Case series Patient: Female, 25 • Female, 39 • Male, 27 • Female, 42 Final Diagnosis: Antisynthetase syndrome Symptoms: Arthralgia • dyspnea • muscle weakness Medication: — Clinical Procedure: Immunosuppressive therapy Specialty: Rheumatology OBJECTIVE: Rare disease BACKGROUND: With the advent and advancement of autoantibodies, there has been progress in the diagnosis, prognosis, and treatment of rheumatologic diseases. Antisynthetase syndrome (ASS) is a great example of a disease that initially was described as arthritis, myositis, interstitial lung disease, mechanic’s hands, Raynaud’s phenomenon, and fever in the presence of the anti-JO-1 antibody, but nowadays it presents with a different spectrum related to new antibodies. CASE REPORT: We describe 4 patients with antisynthetase syndrome who were diagnosed with antibodies specific for myositis associated with different clinical findings. All patients responded to immunosuppressive therapy, and rituximab was the most used. CONCLUSIONS: It is necessary to search for specific autoantibodies related to the syndrome in suspected clinical cases and in other rheumatological diseases refractory to the usual treatment.