Korean J Med.  2015 Mar;88(3):350-355. 10.3904/kjm.2015.88.3.350.

Three Cases of Overlap Syndrome Consisting of Systemic Sclerosis and Rheumatoid Arthritis

• Lee S
• Yoo KH
• Lee K
• Kim IY
• Kwon HJ
• Jeong H
• Koh EM

• KMID: 2082600
• DOI: http://doi.org/10.3904/kjm.2015.88.3.350

Abstract

Overlap syndrome is defined as a disease entity that fulfills the classification criteria of at least two different rheumatologic diseases simultaneously. Overlap of systemic sclerosis (SSc) and rheumatoid arthritis (RA) is less common than the overlap of polymyositis with SSc or systemic lupus erythematosus. Distinguishing RA from SSc can be difficult because arthralgia is a frequent symptom of both. We observed three cases of RA and SSc overlap. In each case, RA occurred in sequence with SSc, with a period of 4-15 years between the onset of each disease. In one case, the patient had diffuse SSc, which is rare among overlap syndrome patients. Previously, only one case of overlap syndrome involving SSc and RA has been reported in Korea; herein, we report our cases with a review of the literature.

Keyword

Systemic sclerosis; Rheumatoid arthritis

MeSH Terms

Arthralgia
Arthritis, Rheumatoid*
Classification
Humans
Korea
Lupus Erythematosus, Systemic
Polymyositis
Scleroderma, Systemic*