Correlation between the serum ferritin levels and disease activity of patients with systemic lupus erythematosus / 中华检验医学杂志

ABSTRACT

Objective To investigate the relationship between the serum ferritin levels and disease activity of patients with systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE).Methods One hundred and forty-six patients with SLE and 65 healthy volunteers were involved.Serum ferritin,C-reactive protein (CRP),erythrocyte sedimentation rate (ESR) and anti-double-stranded DNA antibodies (dsDNA) were measured in two groups.The activity of SLE was evaluated by systemic lupus erythematosus disease activity index (SLEDAI) score.The data were recorded and analyzed.SPSS 19.0.statistical software was used in statistical analysis.Analysis of variance was employed in comparison between groups using,t test was used in further pairwise comparisons,Pearson correlation test was adopted to evaluate the correlation between two groups.Results The level of serum ferritin in patients with SLE group was significantly higher than that of control group (505.4 ±408.9) ng/ml and (72.4 ±42.8) ng/ml,respectively,t =6.67,P ＜0.01.57.5％ (84/146) patients with SLE had elevated serum ferritin.Patients with high SLEDAI scores had significantly higher ferritin concentrations than other patients (807.6 ± 412.3) ng/ml and (96.0 ± 44.7) ng/ml,t =6.56,P ＜0.01.The levels of serum ferritin in SLE patients were positively correlated with SLEDAI score and serum CRP (r =0.396,P ＜ 0.01 ; r =0.351,P ＜ 0.01),and it was not related with ESR or dsDNA (r =0.111,P=0.09;r =0.078,P =0.23).Conclusion The level of serum ferritin could reflect the disease activity of patients with SLE,and it might be used as a new biomarker for disease activity of patients with systemic lupus erythematosus.