Anti-nuclear antibodies as predictor of outcome in a multi-center cohort of Italian children and adolescents with Raynaud’s phenomenon

A retrospective multi-center data collection of clinical, laboratory, and treatment characteristics of 94 Caucasian children and adolescents with Raynaud’s phenomenon (RP) started at a mean age of 12.8 ± 5 years, with variable involvement of hands, feet, and face, was performed for a period of 3 years. Collected data included nailfold videocapillaroscopy (NVC), lung function tests, and different laboratory tests finalized to characterize an eventual connective tissue disease (CTD), disclosed by RP itself. Twelve patients presented an early-scleroderma pattern at NVC, 1 a late-scleroderma pattern, and 58 a nonspecific pattern. Laboratory data results showed the positivity of anti-nuclear antibodies (ANA) in 29 % of patients. After this 3-year period of observation, 8 patients had developed a CTD. Our data examined by multivariate analysis, though limited to a multi-center cohort of pediatric patients with RP, strongly suggest that ANA positivity is a significant predictor of progression of RP towards a CTD.