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Previous Volume 345:1707-1708 December 6, 2001 Number 23 Next

	Since this article has no abstract, we have provided an extract of the first 100 words of the full text and any section headings.

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To the Editor: The review of autoimmunity by Davidson and Diamond (Aug. 2 issue)¹ leaves many points open for debate. The field has never properly come to grips with the question of whether antibodies can damage or impair intact cells by binding to antigens within their cytoplasm. The Ro antigen is cytoplasmic. Is it really proved that antibodies to Ro "bind to the conducting system in the . . . heart, causing complete heart block"?

Without any qualifying remarks, the statement that "cardiac ischemia and necrosis cause heart-specific autoreactivity and myocarditis" is misleading. Dressler's syndrome is an uncommon complication of . . . [Full Text of this Article]

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