The purpose of this study was to characterize the clinical and serological features of a large cohort of patients with antinuclear antibody (ANA) positive undifferentiated connective tissue disease (UCTD). Consecutive patients with UCTD, followed up at the Rheumatology Clinic of the participating centers, were included. Data from these patients were obtained by clinical evaluation and chart review. All patients were diagnosed as having UCTD on basis of the following criteria: positive ANA plus at least one clinical feature of connective tissue disease, but not fulfilling classification criteria for any differentiated connective tissue disease. One hundred eighty-four patients were studied (female patients-94.5%; mean age at time of evaluation-47 years). The most prevalent manifestations were arthralgia (66%), arthritis (32%), Raynaud's phenomenon (30%), sicca symptoms (30%), and leukopenia (19%). The prevalence of ANA was 100%, anti-SSA 20%, antidsDNA 14%, and anti-SSB 7%. Patients with anti-dsDNA/ anti-Sm, anticentromere/anti-Scl70, or anti-SSA/anti-SSB antibodies more frequently presented a set of manifestations close to systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE), systemic sclerosis, or Sjögren syndrome, respectively. We analyze a large cohort of UCTD. Seventy-two percent of these UCTD patients present lupus-, scleroderma-, or Sjögren-like features but do not fulfill classification criteria and mostly present a mild disease.

Dear Sir,Autoimmune diseases tend to co-exist; 1-4 however, systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE) and ulcerative colitis (UC) are rarely described together and a systematic review of the medical literature has seldom been undertaken. The estimated prevalence of UC in SLE patients is around 0.4%. 1 Coexistence of SLE and inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) is difficult to diagnose because both share clinical features 1-6 and also because some medications used in IBD may cause drug-induced lupus. 7 We reviewed all cases of SLE/ UC association published in the MEDLINE, from 1950 to 2008. We also report four patients with SLE and UC, after a retrospective review of the case histories of 485 SLE patients, from our outpatient clinic.