The patients with PN had a longer course of disease than those without PN (z = − 3.225, P = 0.001), and the incidence of Raynaud's phenomenon, anti-SSB antibody, rheumatoid factor and hyperglobulinaemia was higher (all P < 0.05) in patients with PN than in those without PN. Here, SSB is linked to poikiloderma with neutropenia.