Familial inflammatory Sneddon's syndrome - case report and review of the literature

Sneddon's syndrome (SNS) which originally was a clinical diagnosis, is now regarded as a common clinical manifestation of different disease entities. It has been divided into idiopathic, autoimmune and thromboembolic subsets or in systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE)-associated, antiphospholipid syndrome (APS)associated and primary forms. Familial occurrence of Sneddon's syndrome is rare. We present a familial case of Sneddon's syndrome with inflammatory disease pattern, early disease onset and association with autoimmune thyroid disease and anticardiolipin antibodies. Although most authors reporting on adult cases of SNS consider it a non-inflammatory, thromboembolic process, the study of cases with early onset brings attention to the possible inflammatory origin of the syndrome.