Mixed connective tissue disease connective tissue disease is not necessarily associated with serum antibodies directed against the U1-RNP, and MCTD is associated with a more clearly defined set of signs/symptoms. MCTD combines features of scleroderma, myositis, systemic lupus erythematosus, and rheumatoid arthritis (with some sources adding polymyositis, dermatomyositis, and inclusion body myositis) and is thus considered an overlap syndrome. MCTD commonly causes: It has been associated with HLA-DR4. Distinguishing laboratory characteristics are a positive, speckled anti-nuclear antibody and an anti-U1-RNP antibody. The prognosis of mixed connective tissue disease is in one third of cases worse than that of systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE). In spite
Cat-scratch disease Warthin-Starry silver stain was used to discover a Gram-negative bacillus which was named "Afipia felis" in 1991 after it was successfully cultured and isolated. The causative organism of CSD was originally believed to be "Afipia felis", but this was disproved by immunological studies in the 1990s demonstrating that cat-scratch fever patients developed antibodies to two other organisms, "B. henselae" (originally known as "Rochalimea henselae" before the genera "Bartonella" and "Rochalimea" were combined) and "B. clarridgeiae", which is a rod-shaped Gram-negative bacterium. Cat-scratch disease Cat-scratch disease (CSD) is an infectious disease that results from a scratch or bite of a cat.