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Methods: In this observational study from October 2018 to August 2020, we included all the patients of MCTD and overlap syndromes. Alarcon–Segovia criteria was used as defining criteria for MCTD patients while the patients meeting diagnostic criteria for more than 1 of 6 classical autoimmune rheumatic diseases were selected in the overlap syndromes group. We compared their clinical features, laboratory parameters, and autoantibody profiles. MS Excel, STATA were used for statistical analysis, and comparison between the groups was done with t-test, Chi-square test, and Wilcoxon rank sum test. P < 0.05 was considered as statistically significant. Results: The study consisted of 60 consecutive patients (MCTD, n = 30 and overlap syndromes, n = 30) with higher female population in both groups (90% in MCTD and 84% in the overlap syndromes group) compared to males. The incidence of fever (83.3% vs. 46.6%), weight loss (60% vs. 26.6%), trigeminal neuralgia (76.6% vs. 13.3%), and myositis (63.3% vs. 20.0%) was significantly higher in MCTD than overlap syndromes whereas the incidence of cough (66.6% vs. 90.0%) and dry mouth (20.0% vs. 53.3%) was higher in overlap syndromes than MCTD (P < 0.05). Anti-U1 RNP antibodies were seen in all MCTD (100.0%) patients while anti-Scl 70 antibodies (60%) and anti-ribosomal-p-protein antibodies (13.3%) were seen in overlap syndromes. Conclusion: Fever and weight loss, trigeminal neuralgia, and myositis were more common in MCTD than overlap syndromes. Anti-U1 RNP antibodies seen in MCTD while Anti-Scl 70 antibodies and anti-ribosomal-P antibodies were commonly were seen in overlap syndromes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objective: To differentiate the nailfold capillaroscopy (NFC) findings in patients with MCTD-ILD and SSc-ILD and correlate the NFC changes and lung functions among them., Methods: In this observational study from Oct 2020 to Oct 2022, 27 patients with MCTD-ILD and 27 patients with SSc-ILD were included. NFC was performed using Jiangsu Jiahua, JH 1004, China. Statistical analysis was conducted using IBM SPSS software, version 26, and tests including Mann-Whitney U-test, student t-test, chi-square test, or Fisher's exact test were used to compare between groups., Results: In this study, major capillaroscopic changes were more frequent in SSc-ILD group (92%) than in MCTD-ILD group (72.3%), with normal capillaries seen in 7.4% of MCTD-ILD cases. The mean FVC was higher in SSc-ILD group compared to MCTD-ILD group, and patients with capillary loss had a lower mean FVC. Loss of capillaries was more frequent in SSc-ILD group, while dilated capillaries were predominantly observed in MCTD-ILD group. A significant association was found between the severity of restriction in spirometry and NFC., Conclusion: There is an important role for NFC in detecting the severity of lung involvement, as the grading of restrictive severity in spirometry is strongly associated with capillaroscopic abnormalities., Competing Interests: There was no conflict of interest among the authors., (© 2024 The Mediterranean Journal of Rheumatology (MJR).)

Competing Interests: The authors declare no conflict of interest.