Symptoms and signs of polymositis, systematic lupus erythematosus and antiphospholipid syndrome follow consecutively

Polymyositis (PM) and dermatomyositis (DM) are very rare connective tissue disorders which only in exceptional circumstances affect white men. The present paper describes the case of an obese 55-years-old man in whom no muscular-skeletal system symptoms were found during the period of 2 years before the onset of arthritis, and who was treated because of cardiac involvement (pericarditis, PAF), pleuritis, malaise and fever. Only the occurrence of non erosive arthritis decided on the connective tissue disorder as a cause of his complaints. Previously the diagnostics was based on the exclusion of malignant diseases and bacterial and viral infections. The determination of antinuclear antibodies in high titer without any specific, typical of individual disease entities antinuclear antibodies allowed only the diagnose of undifferentiated connective tissue disease. Glucocorticosteroid treatment was initiated, however six months later despite treatment with metyloprednisolone the symptoms and signs associated with PM accompanied by high level of creatinophosphokinase and elevated transaminase were found. The muscle biopsy revealed myositis, but no specific antibodies, especially anti- Jo- 1, were detected. It is very interesting that cyclophosphamide + glucocorticoids pulse therapy failed to prevent the development of antiphospholipide syndrome and interstitial pulmonary fibrosis in the PM patient. Overlapping of immunological tissue disorders is a well-known phenomenon, but in the case of fulminating and distinct symptoms and signs the lack of detection of specific antibodies is quite uncommon.