Concurrent Autoimmune Diseases in MS

Testing for autoantibodies during clinical work-up of patients with clinically isolated syndrome (CIS) should not be routinely performed, except when patients present with symptoms suggestive of other autoimmune diseases (AD), a prospective cohort study suggests.

Researchers followed 772 CIS patients who were tested for anti-nuclear-antibodies, anti-SSA and anti-SSB autoantibodies within the first year of diagnosis, and during a mean 6.6 years follow-up, found:

• One or more autoantibodies were present in 29% of patients.

• Only 1.8% of patients developed another AD.

• The concurrent AD was not considered the cause of CIS in any cases.

• In each case, the diagnosis of another AD was based on the symptoms suggested of the other disease.

Citation: Negrotto L, Tur C, Tintoré M, et al. Should we systematically test patients with clinically isolated syndrome for auto-antibodies? Mult Scler. 2015. doi:10.1177/1352458515575338.