Background: Primary immunodeficiency diseases (PID) are the diseases characterized by a dysfunction of the immune system. Affected patients share a different phenotype such as chronic infections, allergy, autoimmunity, and autoinflammation.
Methods: In all, 433 children with PID were enrolled in this study. Clinical, laboratory, and demographic data of patients were reviewed retrospectively to investigate autoimmune and autoinflammatory complications. Autoinflammation in all patients with inflammation was confirmed by genetic analysis after excluding infectious etiology.
Results: Clinical features of 433 PID patients were evaluated retrospectively with long-term follow-up. Autoimmune disorders were identified in 69 (15.9%) patients with PID; 31 (45%) patients had a history of autoimmune disease before diagnosis of PID. The frequency of autoimmunity in immune dysregulation subgroup (76.6%) was higher than other forms of PID. The most common autoimmune manifestations were reported to be Addison's disease, hypoparathyroidism, and autoimmune hemolytic anemia. Autoinflammation were identified in 22 of the 433 (5.1%) patients with PID, including hyper immunoglobulin D syndrome (n = 9), Aicardi-Goutieres syndrome 1 (n = 6), adenosine deaminase 2 deficiency (n = 3), Blau syndrome (n = 2), tumor necrosis factor (TNF) receptor-associated periodic syndrome (n = 1), and auto-inflammation and phospholipase Cγ2-associated antibody deficiency and immune dysregulation syndrome (n = 1).
Conclusions: It is important to recognize association between autoimmunity, autoinflammation, and PID, which in the future could be useful for increased awareness and early diagnosis for these diseases.
Keywords: autoimmunity; autoinflammation; immune dysregulation; immune system; primary immune diseases.