Seurm ferritin level in systemic lupus erythematosus patients, relationship to disease activity

The aim of this study was to investigate the relationship between serum ferritin levels and disease activity in systemic lupus erythematosus patients [SLE]. Serum ferritin level of 62 SLE patients was measured. SLE patients were subdivided into two groups according to SLE disease activity index [SLEDAI] as /= 11. The results were compared to 30 rheumatoid arthritis [RA] patients. Thirty three patients among the 62 SLE ones were evaluated before and after treatment. Serum ferritin level was higher in SLE than in RA patients [p<0.001]. There was a significant difference in its level before and after treatment. Again, the level in SLE positively correlated with SLEDAI scores. Patients with SLEDAI scores >/= 11 had significantly higher serum ferritin level. Serum ferritin level may be a useful marker of disease activity in SLE patients

Diagnostic role of ELISA detected antibodies to citrullinated antigens in rheumatoid arthritis patients: a comparative study

To investigate rheumatoid arthritis [RA] for the diagnostic role of anti-cyclic citrullinated peptide antibody [anti-CCP] and antifilaggrin antibody [AFA] in comparison with RF and matrix metalloproteinase-3 [MMP-3]. A total of 60 RA patients and 50 other rheumatic disease patients were included in the study. We used a second generation enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay [ELISA] kit for the detection of anti-CCP. We constructed recombinant human filaggrin, which was citrullinated in vitro with human peptidylarginine deaminase, and subsequently used it as the coating antigen for AFA-ELISA. The specificities of anti-CCP [87.3%] and AFA [93.5%] were superior to those of RF [80.4%] and MMP-3 [50.1%]. The sensitivity of anti-CCP [86.3%] was superior to all others. However, the sensitivity of AFA [66.9%] was inferior to those of RF [68.5%] and MMP-3 [72.6%]. ELISA detection of antibodies to citrullinated antigens, especially a second generation anti-CCP, showed higher discriminative ability than other assays, including RF, and would be useful to aid in the diagnosis of RA in clinical practice