Via practica 4/2017

Polyautoimmunity as a problem of differential diagnosis in patients with multiple sclerosis

Polyautoimmunity is defined as presence of two or more autoimmune diseases in one patient. In case of three or more syndromes we speak about multiple autoimmune syndromes. Multiple sclerosis is chronic autoimmune inflammatory degenerative disease of central nervous system. Association of multiple sclerosis with other autoimmune diseases in the same patient is not frequent, but if it occurs, it can represent a serious problem in differential diagnostic and determines substantially the choice of further immunomodulatory treatment. To illustrate this problem, we present two case reports of patients with multiple sclerosis and rheumatoid arthritis and multiple sclerosis and suspected antiphospholipid syndrome.

Keywords: multiple sclerosis, rheumatoid arthritis, antiphospholipid syndrome, polyautoimmunity, immunomodulatory treatment, autoimmune tautology