[The clinical importance of determining protein C and protein S in patients with nonspecific aortoarteritis]. / Klinicheskoe znachenie opredeleniia belka C i belka S u bol'nykh nespetsificheskim aortoarteriitom.

Solid-phase enzyme immunoassay estimated S and C protein levels in 10 patients with nonspecific aortic arteritis (NAA). Lowered concentrations of total protein S (< 70%) occurred in 8 (80%) of 10 NAA patients, in 3 of them protein C was also low. Isolated reduction of protein C was encountered only in one patient. Four patients (44%) of 9 had antibodies to phospholipids, as a rule, in low concentrations. 3 of them had low total protein S concentrations against normal C protein. 4 patients (40%) showed elevated concentrations of WF antigen concentrations. No relationship was noted between a fall in total protein S, C concentrations and clinical presentation of NAA, the disease activity, presence of antibodies to neutrophil cytoplasm and antibodies to endothelial cells. Thus, a reduction in the levels of total protein S in NAA patients is induced by endothelial dysfunction unrelated to production of antibodies to phospholipids, neutrophil cytoplasm and vascular endothelium.

[The von Willebrand factor antigen in systemic vasculitis]. / Antigen faktora Villebranda pri sistemnykh vaskulitakh.

ELISA was used to investigate concentrations of Willebrand's factor antigen (WF III Ag) in 131 patients with various forms of systemic vasculitis (SV) and 93 patients with cardiovascular diseases. Compared to donors, a mean WF III Ag level proved significantly higher in all nosological variants of SV except periarteritis nodosa. Skin livedo vasculitis did not produce noticeable deviations in WF III Ag levels versus those in donors, whereas atherosclerosis obliterans showed these levels to be significantly elevated. Essential hypertension patients had low values of WF III Ag. The highest mean level of the antigen was found in rheumatoid vasculitis and Wegener's granulomatosis in which the antigen content rose to the highest for vascular affections levels (p < 0.05-0.01). High WF III Ag in Wegener's granulomatosis, periarteritis nodosa, leukocytoclastic vasculitis were indicative of renal involvement. Moreover, there was a tendency to an increase in the antigen quantities in Wegener's granulomatosis patients with intercurrent infections versus such without them. In other SV forms and atherosclerosis obliterans concentrations of the antigen were not related to clinical features of the disease.