Rheumatology Advance Access published online on April 16, 2008
Rheumatology, doi:10.1093/rheumatology/ken142
© The Author 2008. Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of the British Society for Rheumatology. All rights reserved. For Permissions, please email: journals.permissions@oxfordjournals.org
Infliximab effective in steroid-dependent juvenile eosinophilic fasciitis
1University Children's Hospital, Pediatric Rheumatology, 2University of Tuebingen, Center for Interdisciplinary Clinical Immunology, Rheumatology and Autoimmune Diseases—INDIRA, 3University of Tuebingen, Institute for Pathology and 4University Hospital, Laboratory for Immunopathology, Tuebingen, Germany
Correspondence to:
N. Tzaribachev, University Children's Hospital, Department for Pediatric Hematology, Oncology and General Pediatrics, Section Pediatric Rheumatology, Hoppe-Seyler Str. 1, 72076 Tuebingen, Germany. E-mail: nikolay.tzaribachev@med.uni-tuebingen.de
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SIR, Eosinophilic fasciitis (EoF) is a rare autoimmune disease during childhood and only few descriptions in the literature exist. In contrast to adults, in children, the condition predominantly affects female gender [1]. Organ involvement seems to be uncommon, though some authors describe a progression to systemic sclerosis (SSc) [1–4].
There are, however, significant differences between EoF and SSc. These include the relative absence of RP, normal nail-fold capillaries, sparing of the epidermis and dermis, infrequent visceral involvement, as well as absence of serological features, which accompany SSc such as ANAs reacting