CLINICAL, LABORATORY AND IMMUNOLOGICAL FEATURES IN PATIENTS OF SYSTEMIC LUPUS ERYTHEMATOSUS

Abstract

Objective: To describe the clinical, laboratory and immunological features in patients with systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE). Methods: This was a descriptive cross-sectional study of 120 SLE patients admitted to Rheumatology department of Cho Ray Hospital and 60 healthy subjects on routine exams from November 2013 to July 2015. Results: Of the 120 patients, 114 were females (95.0%) and 6 were males (5.0%), giving a female to male ratio of 19:1. The patients’ age varied from 16 to 64 years old, mean 27.86. The systematic symptoms include: hypertension (4.2%), oedema (35.8%), fatique (78.3%) and fever (66.7%). The clinical criteria include: photosensitivity (80%), malar rash (69,2%), discoid rash (2,5%), nasal DLE (9.2%), oral DLE (30.0%), alopecia (55.8%), arthritis (45.8%), serositis: cardiac effusion (5.8%), pleural effusion (9.2%), renal: proteinuria per day (39.2%), hematuria (53.3%), neurologic: psychosis (3.3%), headache (7.5%), anemia (66.7%), leukopenia (22.5%), lymphopenia (28.3%), thrombocytopenia (10.0%). The immunological criteria include: positive ANA (97.5%), positive anti-dsDNA (90.0%), positive anti Sm (36.7%), positive anti cardiolipin IgG (18.3%), positive anti cardiolipin IgM (6.7%), positive direct Coomb test (20.0%). Hypocomplementemia of C3: sensitivity (95.0%), specificity (88.3%). Hypocomplementemia of C4: sensitivity (81.7%), specificity (96.7%).Conclusions: C3, C4 in serum are good tests for diagnosing Systemic Lupus Erythematosus according to SLICC 2012, hypocomplementemia of C3 and C4 have high sensitivity and specificity. Keywords:SystemicLupusErythematosus,C3,C4.