The choices including 3 variables Raynaud phenomenon, arthralgia/arthritis, and sex permits 83.3% correct estimation. subgroups were identified. One group (18.1%) corresponded to patients with a rapidly progressive ILD (93.3%; 0.0001 across all) and a very high mortality rate. The MSC1094308 second subgroup (55.4%) corresponded to patients with pure dermato-rheumatologic symptoms (arthralgia; 82.6%; 0.01) and a good prognosis. The third corresponded to patients, mainly male (72.7%; 0.0001), with severe skin vasculopathy, frequent signs of myositis (proximal weakness: 68.2%; 0.0001), and an intermediate prognosis. Raynaud phenomenon, arthralgia/arthritis, and sex permit MSC1094308 the cluster appurtenance (83.3% correct estimation). Nevertheless, an unsupervised analysis confirmed that anti-MDA5 antibody delineates an independent group of patients (e.g., dermatomyositis skin rash, skin ulcers, calcinosis, mechanic’s hands, ILD, arthralgia/arthritis, and high mortality rate) distinct from anti-MDA5? patients with myositis. Conclusion Anti-MDA5+ patients have a systemic syndrome distinct from other patients with myositis. Three subgroups with different prognosis exist. Dermatomyositis (DM) is a heterogeneous group of autoimmune diseases, including disorders limited to the skin of patients, with extracutaneous manifestations, such as muscle, articular or pulmonary lesions, and sometimes with an association with malignancy.1 Myositis-specific autoantibodies permit the delineation of homogenous subgroups of DM.1,2 DM associated with antiCmelanoma differentiation-associated gene 5 antibody (anti-MDA5+) is typically characterized by the presence of a DM skin rash and polyarthralgia and interstitial lung disease (ILD), whereas the clinical signs of myositis are frequently absent.1,3,C5 Anti-MDA5+ DM has a high mortality rate related to the presence of rapidly progressive ILD (RP-ILD).1 The predominance and the variety of the extramuscular manifestations, as well as the absence of muscle symptoms, calls into question the term myositis-specific antibody for anti-MDA5 antibodies. The anti-MDA5 antibody was identified in 2009 2009,5 and a limited number of case reports and case series have been reported. Knowledge of the precise clinical phenotype and the prognosis of anti-MDA5+ patients is necessary to improve the management of this potentially severe disease. To characterize the anti-MDA5+ phenotype, we analyzed the characteristics of a large group of patients (n = 121) and performed unsupervised analysis to detect subgroups with different prognoses among anti-MDA5+ patients. We also compared anti-MDA5+ patients with a group of myositis patients without anti-MDA5 antibody (anti-MDA5?; n = 201) to confirm the specificity of the phenotype. Methods Patients Anti-MDA5+ patients were included in the study if they presented any of the following or a combination thereof: a DM skin rash compatible with DM, according to the European NeuroMusclar Center (ENMC) criteria6 or Sontheimer criteria7; myositis (pathologic features showing the presence of inflammatory infiltrates); arthralgia; or ILD, without other etiology. Anti-MDA5 antibody detection was performed using line-immunoassays (Euroimmun [Germany] or D-Tek [Belgium]). This multicenter observational study was performed on data available from 37 MSC1094308 medical centers in France from 2011 to 2017. Medical records were reviewed retrospectively (Y.A., S.T., G.L., and Y.U.) to collect clinical, laboratory, and imaging data. ILD was defined based on CT imaging MSC1094308 studies and RP-ILD was defined by the acute onset and rapid worsening within 3 months of the onset of respiratory symptoms leading to severe hypoxia 60 mm Hg. Early mortality was defined by death within 3 months of the diagnosis. As a control, a cohort of anti-MDA5? patients with myositis was used. All of the controls had myositis defined based on ENMC6 or Bohan and Peter criteria8 and were followed in one center (Piti-Salptrire Hospital). The controls’ characteristics are detailed in table e-1 (doi.org/10.5061/dryad.t39c4k1). Standard protocol approvals, registrations, and patient consents Agreement for the study was obtained from the French Ministry of Research (CCTIRS no. 14.323 and AC-2013-1868) and the study was approved by the Research Ethics Committee of the Piti-Salptrire Hospital (Paris, France). Statistics Quantitative data (median [interquartile range]) and qualitative data (frequency and percentage) were described. Unsupervised descriptive methods of statistical learning were used to analyze either the anti-MDA5+ patients or the global cohort of patients with myositis (anti-MDA5+ and anti-MDA5?). A multiple correspondence analysis and hierarchical cluster analysis were used to resume the dataset and aggregate patients in subgroups, as previously reported.9 Only patients with an exhaustive set of data were included for the unsupervised analysis. The clustering of patients was unsupervised using Euclidean distance and the Ward agglomerative Argireline Acetate method. V test values are represented for MSC1094308 the variables that participated in the multidimensional analyses (see supplemental tables, doi.org/10.5061/dryad.t39c4k1).10 In addition, the Wilcoxon test was used to compare quantitative data and anti-MDA5 status.