Rheumatology Medical News about systemic lupus erythematosus;erythrocyte-bound C4d

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Usefulness of erythrocyte-bound C4d as a biomarker to predict disease activity in patients with systemic lupus erythematosus
Rheumatology, 06/29/09

Yang DH et al. – Study reports that E-C4d levels (an activation-derived fragment of C4 that is deposited on the erythrocytes, under different conditions of systemic lupus erythematosus) are useful diagnostic markers and can serve as biomarkers of disease activity in these patients. However, E-C4d is of limited value in monitoring disease activity in SLE pts with haemolytic anaemia (HA).

Methods

Aom was to check the levels of erythrocyte-bound C4d (E-C4d), in order to correlate these levels with disease activity of SLE pts
3 groups of patients were examined:
- 63 patients with SLE
- 43 patients with other diseases, and
- 26 healthy controls
Erythrocytes were analysed by flow cytometry to determine the levels of E-C4d

Results

An elevation in the mean levels of E-C4d in SLE pts vs pts with other diseases or healthy controls
In SLE pts, the levels of E-C4d were correlated with the SLEDAI and inversely correlated with serum C3/C4 levels
In the subgroup of SLE pts with HA, a higher level of E-C4d was observed vs SLE pts w/o HA
However, in SLE pts with HA, there was no correlation between the levels of E-C4d and other markers of disease activity, including SLEDAI and levels of anti-dsDNA, C3 and C4

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