Characteristics of cellular – immunity in scleroderma

Scleroderma is the autoimmune diseases. It has clinical characteristics of other autoimmune diseases such as: systemic lupus erythmatosus, juvenile rheumatoid arthritis…Appearance of antinuclear factors, rheumatofactors and increased blood gamma globulin showed that the immunity in this disease is abnormal. Study on 20 patients with scleroderma who were treated at the Allergy Department in two years (1984-1985) showed that: the ratio of leukocyte in the patients was not lower than that in control groups; the percentage of T lymph in peripheral blood was lower; B lymph in peripheral blood increased lightly; T gamma in peripheral blood was lower; the percentage of lymphocyte transformation with Con A and lymphocyte transformation with PHA were lower; lymphocyte transformation with PWM increased

Initial studied about role of anti ANA and dsDNA on the patients of scleroderma

42 patients were diagnosed as scleroderma and treated at Bach Mai Hospital in three years (1991-1993). 90.47% was female, the age ranged from 18 to 63 years. The control group consisted of 20 healthy normal persons. Results: the rate of anti dsDNA positive with serum 1/10 was 30.95%; the rate of anti ANA positive with serum 1/40 was 71.42% in the patients with scleroderma. In the control group, there is no person who had anti dsDNA positive with serum 1/10. The rate of anti ANA positive with serum 1/40 is 10%. Positive anti dsDNA rate is not high (30.95%). There is no case of scleroderma which had negative anti ANA but positive anti dsDNA in the patients group. The appearance of anti dsDNA and anti ANA with digestive and cardiovascular disorder had a high rate. Anti ANA is more valuable in following the nephroinjuries in the scleroderma than dsDNA

Preliminary results on study of subtypes of T lymphocytes in peripheral blood of progressive systemic sclerosis patients

In order to have the primary results of subtypes of T-lymphocytes in peripheral blood of progressive systemic sclerosis patients, 20 patients were studied. The results showed that the counts of TCD3 was 1505 + 505 (cells/ml), TCD4 was 738 + 332 (cells/ml), TCDs was 668 + 291 (cells/ml). There was no significant difference of T-lymphocytes between progressive systemic sclerosis patients and the healthy people. Especially, one patient with severe clinical and paraclinical manifestations had remarkable decrease of TCD3, TCD4, and TCD8.