OBJECTIVE To evaluate the prevalence of antinuclear antibodies (ANA) in patients with autoimmune thyroid diseases (ATD) and the presence of systemic autoimmune disorders among ANA positive patients with ATD. METHODS 168 consecutive patients with ATD with positive antithyroid antibodies and 75 healthy subjects were tested for the presence of ANA. ANA positive patients were further evaluated by...

OBJECTIVE Many laboratories do not test antinuclear antibodies (ANA) by indirect immune-fluorescence (IIF) in parallel with anti-double stranded (ds) DNA antibodies. This study attempts to investigate the legitimacy of such practice. METHODS A retrospective laboratory data analysis of simultaneous assessment of ANA and anti-dsDNA antibody results of 106 patients with either diagnosed or suspe...

BACKGROUND Infections are one of the main causes of morbidity and mortality in patients with systemic lupus erythematosus. OBJECTIVE To analyse urinary tract infection (UTI) risk factors in lupus patients; the influence of these factors on disease activity, organ damage, and disease development; the type and prevalence of UTI; and the micro-organisms involved. METHOD 86 control subjects and...

OBJECTIVE Accumulation of mitochondria underlies T-cell dysfunction in systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE). Mitochondrial turnover involves endosomal traffic regulated by HRES-1/Rab4, a small GTPase that is overexpressed in lupus T cells. Therefore, we investigated whether (1) HRES-1/Rab4 impacts mitochondrial homeostasis and (2) Rab geranylgeranyl transferase inhibitor 3-PEHPC blocks mitochondr...

Bullous systemic lupus erythematosus is a rare subset of systemic lupus erythematosus that is even rarer in pediatric patients. We report a case of a 12-year-old girl who presented with a vesiculobullous eruption on her face, neck, trunk and genital and oral mucosa, as well as anemia, sterile pyuria, ANA (1:1280, speckled pattern) and positive anti-Sm and anti-RNP. Pathological examination sugg...

Background The antiphospholipid syndrome (APS) is defined by the development of vascular thrombosis, or pregnancy morbidity in presence persistent antibodies (APL). Antinuclear (ANA) can be detected primary APS patients without any clinical systemic autoimmune disease. ANA could confer a specific phenotype APS. Objectives To evaluate characteristics with antinuclear other disease (ANA-positive ...

INTRODUCTION The tumor necrosis factor (TNF-α) was initially described as lymphotoxin or cachectin. The discovery of therapies blocking the action of TNF-α, in 1988, started a new era in the therapy. One of often reported adverse effects related to the use of TNF-α antagonists is induction of the formation of autologous antibodies and antibodies neutralizing anti-TNF drugs. The development of a...

Epileptic seizures may be an early symptom of systemic lupus erythematosus, while at the same time some of the epileptic drugs, namely carbamazepine (CBZ), phenytoin (PHT), valproic acid (VPA), ethosuximide (ETM), primidone (PRM), lamotrigine (LTG), zonisamide (ZNS) can cause lupus. A separate clinical problem is the fact that few cases of systemic lupus have as yet been identified by giving an...

The systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE) is an autoimmune disorder with a broad array of clinical signs. In this research, we aimed to use intravenous immunoglobulins (IVIG) called intacglobin as monotherapy to manage an SLE in three patients. Laboratory investigations for SLE diagnosis were done, including the detection of anti-nuclear antibodies (ANA) and SLE confirmation by detecting high tite...

 Adult-onset Still's disease (AOSD) is a rare systemic inflammatory disorder of unknown etiology. There is not currently any specific serological markers for AOSD , and  diagnosis still relying on the exclusion of other likely diagnoses. Yamaguchi's criteria are used as a diagnostic criterion which contains negative serologic markers for other collagen vascular diseases including systemic lupus...