Relationship of antinuclear antibodies to fibromyalgia

Abstract EN

The term fibromyalgia (FM) is a syndrome of musculoskeletal disorder characterized by generalized myalgia, arthralgia, widespread tender points on digital palpation accompanied with fatigue, headache and sleep disturbances.

FM patients usually have blood and chemistry profile within the normal range.

Many patients with FM syndrome present to the Rheumatologists with the clinical features resembling those patients with connective tissue diseases (CTDs), especially mild early systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE).

This study was performed on forty patients dignosed to have FM syndrome according to the American College of Rheumatology (ACR) 1990 criteria.

We found that only seven patients (17.5 %) were ANA +ve.

A speckled pattern was shown in four (57.4%), a diffuse pattern in two (28.4%) and a diffuse-speckled pattern in one case (14.2%).

The remaining 33 patients (82.5%) were ANA -ve.

C-reactive protein (CRP) was measured as an index of inflammation to assess the patients’ inflammatory response.

The mean value of CRP was found higher among the ANA +ve group of patients than the ANA –ve group.

From this study we concluded that there was a subgroup of FM patients (17.5 %) who showed ANA +vity with higher inflammatory response resembling those of early SLE.