British and Spanish researchers retrospectively analysed the profile of myositis-specific autoantibodies in a group of patients with inflammatory myopathy with associated pneumonitis (ILD-IMM) and in another where the patients had interstitial pneumonitis with autoimmune features (IPAF):
- 430 patients recruited in the UK and belonging mainly (80%) to the first group were included in the study,
- in this group, patients positive for anti-MDA5+ autoantibodies had a major risk of mortality within three months of the onset of the disease, although their prognosis was better once this period had passed,
- those with positive anti-PL7 autoantibodies had a much poorer long-term prognosis.
This research confirms the need for early and aggressive treatment in this form of myositis.
