Association between cancer and myositis has been extensively reported and malignancy is a potentially life-threating complication in myositis. In this retrospective study authors give an overview of Hungarian cancer-associated myositis (CAM) patients treated at a single centre managing 450 myositis patients. All patients were diagnosed according to Bohan and Peter. Statistical analysis of disease onset, age, sex, muscle, skin and extramuscular symptoms, muscle enzymes, presence of antibodies, treatment and prognosis was performed. 43 patients could be considered as having CAM. 83.72% had cancer within one year of diagnosis of myositis. Most common localizations were ductal carcinoma of breast and adenocarcinoma of lung. Significant differences were observed between CAM and the non-CAM control patients: DM:PM ratio was 2.31:1 vs. 0.87:1, respectively (p = 0.029), age at diagnosis was 56.60 ± 12.79 vs. 38.88 ± 10.88 years, respectively (p < 0.001). Tumour-treatment was the following: surgical removal in 55.81%, chemotherapy in 51.1%, radiotherapy in 39.53%, hormone treatment in 18.6%, combination therapy in 51.16% of patients. Muscle enzyme levels of patients undergoing surgery were significantly reduced after intervention. 36 patients died (83.72%); 25 DM (83.33%) and 11 PM patients (84.62%); 5 years survival was 15.4% for PM and 27.5% for DM. This study demonstrates that DM, distal muscle weakness, asymmetric Raynaud’s phenomenon, older age, ANA-negativity are risk factors for developing malignancy and polymyositis patients have less chance of long-lasting survival. It is very important to think about cancer and follow every single myositis patient in the clinical routine because survival rate of CAM is very poor.

Accelerated atherosclerosis, increased cardiovascular morbidity and mortality have been associated with rheumatoid arthritis (RA) and ankylosing spondylitis (AS). Vascular function, clinical and laboratory markers and the effects of anti-TNF therapy were assessed in arthritides. Fifty-three 53 patients including 36 RA patients treated with either etanercept (ETN) or certolizumab pegol and 17 AS patients treated with ETN were included in a 12-month follow-up study. Ultrasonography was performed to determine flow-mediated vasodilation (FMD), common carotid intima-media thickness (ccIMT) and arterial pulse-wave velocity (PWV) in all patients. All assessments were performed at baseline and 6 and 12 months after treatment initiation. A significant improvement of brachial artery FMD was observed after 6 months (p = 0.004). A tendency of FMD improvement was also observed after 12 months (p = 0.065). ccIMT did not change throughout the year. PWV significantly improved after 12 months (p = 0.034). Higher baseline ccIMT (p = 0.009) and PWV (p = 0.038) were associated with clinical non-response (cNR) versus response (cR) to biologics. Multiple analysis confirmed the association of baseline ccIMT with age (p = 0.003) and cNR (p = 0.009), as well as that of baseline PWV with age at diagnosis (p = 0.022) and current chest pain (p = 0.004). Treatment itself determined the 12-month changes in FMD (p = 0.020) and PWV (p = 0.007). In a mixed cohort of RA and AS patients, TNF inhibition improved or stabilized vascular pathophysiology. Inflammation may be associated with FMD, while, among others, cNR may influence vascular function.

The aim of this study was to determine the clinical, serological, and genetic features of anti-Jo-1 positive antisynthetase patients followed by a Hungarian single centre to identify prognostic markers, which can predict disease phenotypes and disease progression. It was a retrospective study using clinical database of 49 anti-Jo-1 positive patients. 100% of patients exhibited myositis, 73% interstitial lung disease, 88% arthritis, 65% Raynaud’s phenomenon, 43% fever, 33% mechanic’s hand, and 12% dysphagia. We could detect significant correlation between anti-Jo-1 titer and the CK and CRP levels at disease onset and during disease course. HLA DRB1⁎03 positivity was present in 68.96% of patients, where the CK level at diagnosis was significantly lower compared to the HLA DRB1⁎03 negative patients. HLA DQA1⁎0501-DQB1⁎0201 haplotype was found in 58.62% of patients, but no significant correlation was found regarding any clinical or laboratory features. Higher CRP, ESR level, RF positivity, and the presence of fever or vasculitic skin lesions at the time of diagnosis indicated a higher steroid demand and the administration of higher number of immunosuppressants during the follow-up within anti-Jo-1 positive patients. The organ involvement of the disease was not different in HLA-DRB1⁎0301 positive or negative patients who were positive to the anti-Jo-1 antibody; however, initial CK level was lower in HLA-DRB1⁎0301 positive patients. Distinct laboratory and clinical parameters at diagnosis could be considered as prognostic markers.

Idiopathic inflammatory myopathies are autoimmune diseases characterized by symmetrical proximal muscle weakness. Our aim was to identify a correlation between VDR polymorphisms or haplotypes and myositis. We studiedVDR-BsmI,VDR-ApaI,VDR-TaqI, andVDR-FokIpolymorphisms and haplotypes in 89 Hungarian poly-/dermatomyositis patients (69 females) and 93 controls (52 females). We did not obtain any significant differences forVDR-FokI,BsmI,ApaI, andTaqIgenotypes and allele frequencies between patients with myositis and healthy individuals. There was no association of VDR polymorphisms with clinical manifestations and laboratory profiles in myositis patients. Men with myositis had a significantly different distribution ofBB,Bb, andbbgenotypes than female patients, control male individuals, and the entire control group. Distribution ofTT,Tt, andttgenotypes was significantly different in males than in females in patient group. According to four-marker haplotype prevalence, frequencies of sixteen possible haplotypes showed significant differences between patient and control groups. The three most frequent haplotypes in patients were thefbAt,FBaT, andfbAT. Our findings may reveal that there is a significant association:BbandTtgenotypes can be associated with myositis in the Hungarian population we studied. We underline the importance of our result in the estimated prevalence of four-marker haplotypes.

Overlap myositis is a distinct subgroup of idiopathic inflammatory myositis (IIM) with various clinical phenotypes. The aim of this study was to determine the clinical, serological, and genetic features of systemic sclerosis (SSc)‐IIM overlap patients. It was a retrospective study using clinical database of 39 patients, fulfilling both the criteria of SSc and IIM. 56.4% of the patients had limited cutaneous, 43.6% had diffuse cutaneous SSc, whereas 7.7% of the patients had dermatomyositis and 92.3% polymyositis. The two diseases occurred simultaneously in 58.97%, while 10.26% in myositis and 30.77% in scleroderma were initially diagnosed. The frequencies of organ involvement were interstitial lung disease 71.8%, dysphagia 66.7%, cardiac involvement 41%, pulmonary arterial hypertension (PAH) 30.8%, and renal involvement 12.8%, respectively. The presence of human leukocyte antigen (HLA) − DRB1∗03 and DQA1∗051∗01 alleles were significantly higher in the overlap patients than in healthy controls (82.35% vs. 27.54%; p < 0.0001 and 88.24% vs. 30.16; p < 0.0001). Certain clinical parameters, such as fever at diagnosis (41.67% vs. 7.41%, p = 0.0046), cardiac involvement (83.33% vs. 22.22%, p = 0.0008), subcutaneous calcinosis (41.66 vs. 11.11, p = 0.01146), and claw hand deformity (25% vs. 11.11%, p = 0.00016) were significantly associated with the presence of PAH. Upon comparison, the overlap patients and anti‐Jo‐1 positive antisynthetase patients showed similarities in terms of genetic results and major clinical features; however, SSc‐IIM overlap patients could be distinguished with higher erythrocyte sedimentation rate (ESR) level, more frequent presence of Raynaud’s phenomenon (p < 0.0001; OR: 20.00), dysphagia (p < 0.0001; OR: 15.63), and infrequent livedo reticularis (p < 0.01; OR: 0.11). SSc‐IIM overlap myositis is a unique group within IIM‐s possessing characteristic clinical features.