ArticleArthritis research & therapy2026
Site-level cutaneous phenotyping framework for anti-MDA5-positive dermatomyositis: exploratory associations with systemic immune reference markers.
Article in Arthritis research & therapy, 2026. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Not yet cited in PubMed.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
0 citing papers in PubMed.
No citing paper in PubMed yet.
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
5 authors.
Funding
Abstract
objectivesTo propose and evaluate a CDASI-informed, medical-record-based site-by-lesion cutaneous phenotyping framework for anti-MDA5-positive dermatomyositis, using established systemic and immunological markers as reference anchors to examine whether this framework provides additional phenotypic resolution beyond conventional binary skin assessment.
methodsThis single-centre retrospective cross-sectional study enrolled 339 anti-MDA5-positive DM patients. Cutaneous involvement was coded as binary ulceration, itch, and scale features across seven prespecified anatomical regions. The framework was CDASI-informed but did not use formal CDASI activity or damage scores. FLATCAN components, PAH, IgG, and IgM were used as systemic and immunological reference markers. Analyses included FDR-corrected univariate screening, hypothesis-driven multivariable association models, restricted cubic spline analysis, exploratory internal model-performance summaries, cross-correlation SVD (CC-SVD), and exploratory clustering.
resultsThe framework revealed complementary skin-systemic association patterns. First, the spatial extent of ulceration refined a conventional binary ulcer signal: any cutaneous ulceration was associated with CD8 + T-cell depletion (OR = 3.35, P < 0.001; FDR q = 0.026), and ulcer site count remained independently associated with CD8 + depletion (OR = 1.43 per site, P = 0.008). Second, anatomical location contributed distinct information: facial ulceration was associated with PAH (OR = 2.28, P = 0.003) more strongly than overall ulcer site count. Third, lesion-feature type separated different immunological patterns, with ulceration preferentially associated with CD8+/IgG-related signals and itch with IgM-related signals. CC-SVD organised these observations into exploratory dimensions, including a bootstrap-stable facial involvement-PAH/infection dimension and a statistically less stable acral ulcer-CD8+/IgG dimension.
conclusionSite-by-lesion cutaneous phenotyping may provide a useful framework for studying phenotypic heterogeneity in anti-MDA5-positive dermatomyositis. The observed associations are exploratory and require prospective validation using standardised skin assessment and clinical outcome follow-up.
Indexed as
Identifiers
What OpenQuestion holds
Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.