Prevalence of autoantibodies in the serum of patients with systemic sclerosis (SSc) in presence or absence of TTV-DNA and/or GBV-C RNA infection
| All patients with SSc | TTV and GBV-C negative | TTV and/or GBV-C positive | TTV positive | GBV-C positive | |
| No of patients | 84 | 71 | 13 | 10 | 4 |
| Age (years, SD) | 59.0 (9.7) | 58.7 (9.6) | 60.8 (10.8) | 57.3 (10.3) | 69.1 (3.5) |
| No of male/female patients | 14/70 | 12/59 | 2/11 | 2/8 | 0/4 |
| ELISA positivity, No (%) of patients [mean (SD) in U/ml] | |||||
| IgG anti-RNP | 5 (6) [6.0 (6.3)] | 5 (7) [6.3 (7.0)] | 0 [4.1 (3.4)] | 0 [5.4 (3.7)] | 0 [1.3 (1.1)] |
| IgG anti-isotopoisomerase 1 (Scl-70) | 31 (37) [39.0 (42.9)] | 26 (37) [37.2 (40.5)] | 5 (38) [49.1 (54.9)] | 5 (50) [62.9 (57.5)] | 0 [3.1 (0.85)] |
| HEp-2 cell immunofluorescence findings, No (%) of patients | |||||
| Centromeric | 18 (21) | 13 (18) | 5 (38) | 2 (20) | 3 (75) |
| Nucleolar | 21 (25) | 17 (24) | 4 (31) | 4 (40) | 0 |
| Fine speckled | 36 (43) | 32 (45) | 4 (31) | 4 (40) | 0 |
| Coarse speckled | 19 (23) | 17 (24) | 2 (15) | 2 (20) | 0 |
| Speckled (fine and coarse) | 55 (66) | 49 (69) | 6 (46) | 6 (60) | 0 |
| Homogeneous | 20 (24) | 15 (21) | 5 (38) | 5 (50) | 0 |
| At least one positive feature | 74 (88) | 64 (90) | 11 (85) | 8 (80) | 3 (75) |