Subclinical Disease Activity in Systemic Lupus Erythematosus: Inflammatory Markers Do Not Normalize in Clinical Remission

According to a study in Switzerland, patients with SLE in clinical remission show ongoing systemic immunoinflammatory activity measured with a variety of cytokines, adhesion molecules and other inflammatory markers. Thirty-nine patients had inactive disease and eighteen had active SLE and surprisingly, except for C-reactive protein, no statistically significant difference of the laboratory indicators was found between patients with active and those with inactive SLE. In addition, different laboratory markers correlated with disease activity in different organ systems suggesting differences in pathogenic mechanisms in SLE depending on the organ system involved.

Source: Journal of Rheumatology 2003;30:2133-9