Overlap syndrome

Overview
An overlap syndrome is an autoimmune disease in which the patient presents with symptoms of two or more diseases. As much as 25% of all patients with connective tissue disease show signs of an overlap syndrome. Examples of overlap syndromes are MCTD and scleromyositis, but the exact diagnosis depends from which diseases the patient shows symptoms. In overlap syndromes features of systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE), systemic sclerosis, polymyositis, dermatomyositis, rheumatoid arthritis (RA) and Sjögren's syndrome are found most commonly.