-Original-

Clinical Features of Antinuclear Antibody-positive Patients with Atopic Dermatitis

Naoyuki Higashi^1,2, Yayoi Niimi¹, Mikako Aoki¹ and Seiji Kawana¹

¹Department of Cutaneous and Mucosal Pathophysiology, Graduate School of Medicine, Nippon Medical School
²Department of Dermatology, Nippon Medical School Tama Nagayama Hospital

Twenty to thirty percent of patients with atopic dermatitis (AD) are positive for antinuclear antibodies (ANAs). In this study we investigated the prevalence of ANA in 100 patients with AD and examined the difference between ANA-positive (ANA (+)) and ANA-negative (ANA (-)) patients with AD. ANAs were identified with indirect immunofluorescence on Hep-2 cells. Nineteen patients (19%) with AD were found to be positive for ANAs at titers ranging from 1:40 to 1:640. The rate of ANA positivity in male patients (20.4%) was higher than that in female patients (17.6%). The rate of ANA positivity differed significantly between patients with AD and healthy control subjects (p=0.0001, odds ratio: 2.8). There was also a relationship between ANA (+) AD and photosensitivity in male subjects (p=0.0346). The ANA (+) patients with AD showed higher levels of cedar pollen-specific IgE than did ANA (-) patients (p=0.0232). In ANA (+) patients disease severity was correlated with basophil counts (r=0.513, p=0.0344) and serum LDH levels (r=0.741, p=0.0056). The results indicate that patients with AD who are positive for ANA are a subpopulation of patients with AD.

J Nippon Med Sch 2009; 76: 300-307

Keywords
antinuclear antibodies, atopic dermatitis, basophils, photosensitivity, disease severity

Correspondence to
Naoyuki Higashi, Department of Dermatology, Nippon Medical School Tama Nagayama Hospital, 1-7-1 Nagayama, Tama, Tokyo 206-8512, Japan
ton@nms.ac.jp

Received, April 22, 2009
Accepted, July 31, 2009