Group sequential designs are used to potentially shorten randomized clinical trials and thereby reduce subject burden, improve safety, and save time and resources. Clinical trials comparing treatments for systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE) might adopt such designs if the ordinal outcome scales for SLE, such as the Systemic Lupus Activity Measure and Systemic Lupus Erythematosus Disease Activity...

SLE: systemic lupus erythematosus INTRODUCTION Pincer nail is the transverse overcurvature of the nail plate which can lead to painful pinching of underlying tissues, loss of soft tissue of the involved fingers, and rarely bone resorption of the terminal phalynx. Pincer nails may be congenital or acquired. Acquired pincer nail deformity has multiple associations including ill-fitting shoes, med...

Background: Considering the role of Duffy antigenic system expression on RBCs as chemokines for inflammatory cytokines, expression of Duffy antigens as different phenotypes was studied in a group of patients with SLE. The association between different phenotypes of Duffy antigens and occurrence of SLE and its severity was assessed.  Methods: This cross-sectional study was carried out on 100 pa...

Although liver dysfunction is not considered the main organ pathology or prognostic factor in patients with Systemic Lupus Erythematosus (SLE), it is not uncommon during the course of SLE. Liver complications in patients with SLE may be caused by lupus hepatitis (SLE-related hepatitis); autoimmune liver diseases, such as Autoimmune Hepatitis (AIH) and Primary Biliary Cirrhosis (PBC); viral hepa...

Systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE) is an autoimmune disease and a chronic systematic disease with unknown etiology influential more than one million individuals each year. The aim of this study is to substantiation the impact of IL4, C3 and C4 in patients with Systemic Lupus Erythematosus. During the period 2/January/2013 to 1/October/2013, fifty patients with Systemic Lupus Erythematosus that ...

Systemic lupus Erythematosus (SLE) is a rheumatic autoimmune disease characterized by multisystem organ involvement and by high titers of autoantibodies against several nuclear and cytoplasmic antigens (1). Numerous abnormalities of the cytokine network have been described in patients suffering from SLE as well as in murine lupus models. Some of them were shown to play a pivotal physiopathologi...

BACKGROUND Lupus retinopathy is one of the most common vision-threatening complications of systemic lupus erythematosus. The presence of lupus retinopathy is an accurate guide to the presence of active systemic disease activity. RESULTS A prospective study was conducted looking at 91 established cases of systemic lupus erythematosus to evaluate lupus retinopathy. The patients were divided int...

BACKGROUND Systemic Lupus Erythematosus (SLE) is a complex chronic immunological disease characterized by increased B cell activity and altered T cell function. OBJECTIVE To investigate relationship between T lymphocyte subsets and cortisol with the disease activity of systemic lupus erythematosus patients in North India. MATERIALS AND METHODS The percentage of CD4(+) and CD8(+) T cells in ...