A 36-year-old woman with primary biliary cirrhosis (PBC)-CREST (calcinosis, Raynaud's phenomenon, esophageal dysfunction, sclerodactyly and telangiectasia) overlap syndrome complicated by Sjogren's syndrome and arthritis is reported. She had suffered from Raynaud's phenomenon, sclerodactyly, morning stiffness, arthralgia and sicca symptomssince 34 years of age. She exhibited an increased level of alkaline phosphatase and hyperglobulinemia at 2.8 g/dl without any symptoms, and histological findings from the biopsy specimen of the liver were consistent with those of PBC. Her human leukocyte antigen (HLA) typing was DR8homozygous. (Internal Medicine 34: 451-454, 1995)
A 38-year-old womanvisited our hospital with edema on her face and conjunctivae. The underlying disease was not clarified, and she did not visit the hospital afterwards. She suffered from diarrhea, polyarthralgia, Raynaud's phenomenon,malar rash and hair loss in the subsequent two years, and was hospitalized because of hypoproteinemia. Her urine, liver and heart test results did not account for her hypoproteinemia. She was diagnosed as having protein-losing enteropathy (PLE) associated with SLE based on the 99mtechnetium-labeled humanserum albumin scintigraphy findings, clinical findings and laboratory results of antinuclear and anti-Sm antibodies. This case report demonstrates a strong association between PLE and SLE because PLEwas aggravated along with the appearance of SLEsymptoms and PLE subsided with prednisolone treatment along with improvement of SLE. (Internal Medicine 40: 449-453, 2001)
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