Utility of dermatomyositis-specific autoantibodies for diagnosis and clinical subsetting

Autoantibodies directed against nuclear or cellular elements are present in patients with dermatomyositis (DM). With a few exceptions, most of these autoantibodies are found exclusively in patients with this condition. Antibodies against aminoacyl tRNA synthetases, signal recognition particle or Mi-2 are well-established polymyositis- and/or DM-specific autoantibodies. Recently, additional autoantibodies specific for DM have been reported by several investigators. These novel DM-specific autoantibodies have proven useful for diagnosis, treatment selection, prognosis and classification of DM patients into distinct subsets. This article reviews the clinical characteristics and immunological findings in patients with these DM-specific autoantibodies as well as their utility in the clinical setting and for attempts to classify DM patients into distinct clinical phenotypes.