Abstract

Objective: Systemic Lupus Erythematosus (SLE) is an autoimmune and multi systemic disease and etiology is not well-established. Determining activity of the disease is essential for choosing the appropriate treatment regime. There are many indexes are used to determine the activity of the disease including: SLE Disease Activity Index (SLEDAI), British Isles Lupus Assessment Group (BI-LAG), Lupus Activity Index (LAI) and European Consensus Lupus Activity Measure (ECLAM). In this paper we investigated serum neopterin, sIL2R, sVCAM-1, CD5, ferritin and prolactin levels and compared the results with SLEDAI scores whether they are useful for assessing activity of the disease.

Materials and Methods: 61 SLE patients (49 female, 11 male) and 30 healthy adults (24 female, 6 male) included in this study. In addition patients divided into active (n: 30) and inactive (n: 31) groups depending on their disease activity. Serum neopterin, sIL2R, sVCAM-1, CD5, ferritin, prolactin, Anti Cardiolipin Antibody IgM (ACA-IgM) and IgG (ACA-IgG) were measured both in patient and control groups.

Results: We found no significant difference in serum prolactin levels in patient and control groups (p>0, 05). CD5 values were significantly low in patients compared with controls (p<0,001) and ferritin levels were demonstrably higher in patient group (p<0, 02). sVCAM-I, sIL2R and neopterin levels were also markedly high in patient group (p<0,0001). Comparing this parameters in active and inactive patient groups showed that there is a significant difference with ferritin (p<0,001), sVCAM-I (p<0, 02), neopterin (p<0,003) and sIL2R (p<0,002) levels. On the other hand there was no statistically difference found with prolactin and CD5 levels (p>0, 05).

Conclusion: As we found a positive correlation between SLEDAI score and sIL2R, neopterin, sVCAM-I and ferritin levels, we state that serum levels of these proteins especially sVCAM-I, sIL2R, neopterin are useful for assessing the activity of the disease. We also concluded that change in the ferritin levels in all inflammatory processes such like SLE is due to nature of this protein which acts as an acute phase reactant.