Autoimmune congenital heart block (ACHB) is a passively acquired immune-mediated disease characterized by the presence of maternal antibodies against components of the Ro/SSA and La/SSB ribonucleoprotein complex that mainly affects the cardiac conducting system. ACHB occurs in 2% of women with positive anti-Ro/SSA and anti-La/SSB antibodies and causes a high risk of intrauterine fetal death, neonatal mortality, and long-term sequelae. In this review, we first describe a case of ACHB to provide preliminary knowledge. Then, we discuss the possible pathogenic mechanisms of ACHB; summarize the pregnancy management of patients with positive anti-Ro/SSA and anti-La/SSB antibodies and/or rheumatic diseases, the prevention of ACHB, and the treatment of ACHB fetuses; and propose routine screening of these antibodies for the general population. Careful follow-up, which consists of monitoring the fetal heart rate, is feasible and reassuring for pregnant women with positive anti-Ro/SSA and/or anti-La/SSB antibodies to lower the risk of ACHB in fetuses. Moreover, maternal administration of hydroxychloroquine may be useful in preventing ACHB in pregnant women with anti-Ro/SSA and/or anti-La/SSB antibodies.

BACKGROUND: Antibodies to histone have been associated in the adult literature with systemic lupus erythematosus(SLE) and drug induced lupus(DILE). Little data is available regarding the spectrum of pathology that antibodies to histone encompass in the pediatric population. Prior studies suggest an association with SLE, juvenile idiopathic arthritis(JIA), uveitis and linear scleroderma.
METHODS: Patient charts were reviewed that contained positive anti-histone antibody testing during a consecutive three year period. Patient diagnosis along with the presence of: anti-histone antibody titer, ANA, and the presence of other autoantibodies to SSA, SSB, Sm, RNP, dsDNA and chromatin were obtained. The frequency of SLE, JIA and DILE was further investigated in specific subsets.
RESULTS: 139 individual charts were reviewed containing 41 different diagnoses. The most common diagnosis was hypermobility arthralgia with 22 patients. The most frequent rheumatologic diagnosis was JIA(nonsystemic) with 19. 13 patients in this study were diagnosed with SLE and 2 with DILE. 18 patients had other autoantibody production, of these, 11 had SLE or DILE. Only one of 62 patients with a weak antihistone antibody titer(1.0-1.5) was diagnosed with SLE. When strong titers are present(> 2.5), the antihistone antibody test was associated with a greater than 50% incidence of an underlying rheumatologic disease and ten times higher incidence of SLE than a weak titer. In regards to the frequency of SLE, there was a statistically significant difference between weak and moderate titers and between weak and strong titers.
CONCLUSIONS: The presence of anti-histone antibody was observed in a variety of diagnoses in the pediatric population. Overall, the presence of anti-histone antibodies appears to have poor diagnostic utility for any specific condition. However, diagnostic utility for SLE does appear to improve with higher titers, when combined with other autoantibody positivity. Strength of titer did not appear to be a factor for JIA, but was the most frequently observed rheumatologic disease in this study.

OBJECTIVE: The relationship between anti-SSA/RO antibodies and pregnancy has been reported previously, and we aim to visualize the rates of maternal and infant outcomes with anti-SSA/RO.
METHODS: We systematically searched records from Pubmed, Cochrane, Embase, and Web of Science databases, pooled incidence rates of adverse outcomes of pregnancy, and 95% confidence intervals (CIs) were performed with RStudio.
RESULTS: A total of 890 records comprising 1675 patients and 1920 pregnancies were searched from the electronic databases. For maternal outcomes, the pooled estimate rates were 4% for termination of pregnancy, 5% for spontaneous abortion, 26% for preterm labor, and 50% for cesarean operation. While for fetal outcomes, the pooled estimate rates were 4% for perinatal death, 3% for intrauterine growth retardation, 6% for endocardial fibroelastosis, 6% for dilated cardiomyopathy, 7% for congenital heart block, 12% for congenital heart block recurrence, 19% for cutaneous neonatal lupus erythematosus, 12% for hepatobiliary disease and 16% for hematological manifestations. A subgroup analysis of congenital heart block prevalence was performed, diagnostic method and study region were found to affect heterogeneity to some extent.
CONCLUSIONS: Cumulative analysis of data from real-world studies confirmed adverse pregnancy outcomes of women with anti-SSA/RO, serves as a reference and a guide for the diagnosis and subsequent treatment of these women, thereby enhancing maternal and infant health. Additional studies with real-world cohorts are required to validate these results.

OBJECTIVE: To analyze the clinical features of lupus-like tuberculosis (TB).
METHODS: Three cases of TB imitating systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE) flare were collected in our hospital. Based on literature review, there are only 3 reports of TB resembling lupus flare rather than SLE per se.
RESULTS: The 3 cases of lupus mimickers, with a mean age of 30.3 years, ranging from 27 to 32 years, had atypical features of SLE, namely no typical butterfly erythema, lupus hair, alopecia or proteinuria, similar to the patients reported in the 3 previously mentioned studies. Emergence of different autoantibodies like anti-nuclear antibodies, anti-double-stranded DNA, anti-nucleosome antibodies, and anti-histone antibodies could occur in TB, mostly as an epiphenomenon. In patients with specific serological anti-Sm and hypocomplementemia, active TB cannot be easily ruled out. The presence of autoantibodies neither altered the clinical manifestations and radiographic findings of active TB, nor were detectable after infections are resolved. The resistance of the SLE manifestations to the steroid and immunosuppressive treatment suggests the contribution of an infectious disease.
CONCLUSIONS: TB stimulated the production of autoantibodies, with shared affinity for mycobacteria and human antigens, which may have led to lupus mimickers.

Objective: To report the clinical features and genetic variations of monogenic lupus caused by DNASE1L3 deficiency and to introduce preliminary experience on diagnosis and treatment for this disease. Methods: Clinical data of 3 children from the same pedigree were collected who were diagnosed with DNASE1L3 defect-associated monogenic lupus in August 2020 by Department of Pediatrics, Peking Union Medical College Hospital referred from Department of Pediatrics, Boai Hospital of Zhongshan. DNA was extracted from the peripheral blood of the patients and their parients to perform genetic analysis and confirmation. Six interferon-stimulated genes were relatively quantified to examine the activation of the type I interferon signaling. \"DNASE1L3\" \"systemic lupus erythematosus\" and \"SLE\" were searched in PubMed, Wangfang Data, CNKI databases for related reports from database established date to June 2022. Spectrum of genetic variations and clinical phenotypes were analyzed in combination with this pedigree. Results: Case 1, a 14-year-old girl with edema, hematuria, and heavy proteinuria, presented with membranous nephropathy. Case 2, the 12-year-old younger brother of case 1 with hematologic, cardiac, pulmonary, renal involvement, positive antinuclear antibody, positive anti-double-stranded DNA antibody and low complement C3, manifested with systemic lupus erythematosus. Case 3, the 8-year-old younger sister of case 1 with hematologic, cardiac, pulmonary and renal involvement, positive antinuclear antibody, positive anti-double-stranded DNA antibody, and low complement C3 and C4, manifested with systemic lupus erythematosus. Genetic testing revealed that all 3 patients carried homozygous deletions in exons 3 and 4 on DNASE1L3 gene. Interferon scores were elevated in case 1, 2 and their parents but normal in case 3. All 3 patients were diagnosed with monogenic lupus caused by DNASE1L3 defects. Literature searching identified 10 relevant publications in English and 0 publication in Chinese, involving 42 patients from 18 pedigrees (including the 3 cases from this pedigree). Nine variants were found: c.289_290delAC (p.T97Ifs*2), c.643delT (p.W215Gfs*2), c.320+4delAGTA, c.321-1G>A, Ex5 del, c.433G>A, c.581G>A (p.C194Y), c.537G>A (p.W179X), and Ex3-4 del. The hotspot variants were c.643delT (43% (36/84)) and c.289_290delAC (36% (30/84)). Kidney was affected in 31 cases (74%) of the 42 cases. Among the 25 patients, joints were affected in 16 cases (64%), fever were reported in 13 cases (52%) hematologic system was involved 13 cases (52%), rash was present in 10 cases (40%), intestinal tract was involved in 8 cases (32%), lungs were involved in 6 cases (24%), eyes were involved in 4 cases (16%), and the heart was involved in 4 cases (16%). The 2 cardiopulmonary affected patients from literature showed poor prognosis, with 1 died, and 1 right heart failure. Conclusions: The clinical manifestations of monogenic lupus caused by DNASE1L3 defect are highly heterogenous, primarily with renal, blood, joint, intestinal, and cardiopulmonary involvement. There is no correlation between the genotype and the phenotype. DNASE1L3 defects were predominantly mediated by null varations including nonsense, splicing, frameshift and exon deletions. The hotspot variants are c.643delT and c.289_290delAC. DNASE1L3 defects should be cautioned in early-onset lupus-like patients with renal, joint and hematologic involvement. Cardiopulmonary involved patients require close monitoring for poor prognosis. Copy number variations should be carefully analyzed after negative whole exome sequencing.
目的： 探讨DNASE1L3基因缺陷导致的单基因狼疮的临床特征及基因变异特点，并提供初步的诊治经验。 方法： 收集经中山市博爱医院儿科转诊至北京协和医院儿科2020年8月确诊的DNASE1L3基因缺陷相关单基因狼疮一家系3例患儿的临床资料，提取患儿及父母的外周血DNA进行遗传学分析及验证，并检测干扰素刺激基因相对表达量检测其Ⅰ型干扰素通路激活情况。分别以“DNASE1L3”“系统性红斑狼疮”“SLE”为关键词查阅PubMed数据库、万方数据库、中国知网数据库自建库至2022年6月相关文献，并结合本家系进行基因变异谱及临床资料分析总结。 结果： 例1，女，14岁，水肿、血尿、大量蛋白尿，表现为膜性肾病。例2，男，12岁，例1之弟，血液、心脏、肺、肾脏受累，抗核抗体、抗双链DNA抗体阳性，低补体C3，表现为系统性红斑狼疮。例3，女，8岁，例1之妹，血液、心脏、肺、肾脏受累，抗核抗体、抗双链DNA抗体阳性，低补体C3、C4，表现为系统性红斑狼疮。基因检测发现3例患儿均为DNASE1L3基因外显子3及4纯合缺失导致；干扰素评分例1、2及父母均升高，例3正常。3例患儿均确诊为DNASE1L3基因缺陷导致单基因狼疮。检索符合条件的英文文献10篇，中文文献0篇，包括本家系3例共42例（18个家系）患者，共发现9个变异位点：c.289_290delAC（p.T97Ifs*2）、c.643delT（p.W215Gfs*2）、c.320+4delAGTA、c.321-1G>A，Ex5 del，c.433G>A、c.581G>A（p.C194Y）、c.537G>A（p. W179X）以及Ex3-4 del。变异热点为c.643delT［43%（36/84）］及c.289_290delAC［36%（30/84）］。42例患者中31例（74%）有肾脏受累；25例患者中关节［16例（64%）］、发热［13例（52%）］、血液系统［13例（52%）］、皮疹［10例（40%）］、肠道［8例（32%）］、肺［6例（24%）］、眼［4例（16%）］、心脏［4例（16%）］受累，另有肌痛、光过敏、胸膜炎、肝大、意识改变各1例（4%）。2例合并心肺受累患者1例死亡，1例右心衰、预后不良。 结论： DNASE1L3基因缺陷导致的单基因狼疮临床表现异质性大，主要累及肾脏、血液、关节、肠道、心、肺系统等，临床表型与基因型无关；合并心、肺受累的患者预后较差。DNASE1L3基因缺陷以无义、剪切、移码、外显子缺失等无功能变异为主。对于起病年龄早、肾脏、关节、血液受累的系统性红斑狼疮疑似患儿需警惕DNASE1L3基因缺陷的发生，合并心、肺系统受累的患儿需密切监测病情进展以避免不良预后。对于全外显子组检测阴性患儿，需注意拷贝数变异的分析。.