Sero negative lupus

BACKGROUND: It has been suggested that polymorphisms in Toll-like Receptors (TLRs) are associated with Rheumatoid Arthritis (RA), but the implicated alleles have differed between studies. The aim of this investigation was to explore whether polymorphisms of TLR genes are associated with RA in a predominantly Caucasian population from Denmark using a case-control approach. FINDINGS: DNA samples (3 university hospital outpatient clinics) were obtained from patients with RA (n = 704) and healthy controls (n = 639) in a Danish population...

BACKGROUND AND AIM: To evaluate presence of sero-negative spondyloarthritis (SpA) in celiac disease (CD) patients, and whether compliance with a gluten free diet (GFD) improved arthritis manifestations in these patients. METHODS: We undertook a prospective, questionnaire based, cross-sectional cohort study to evaluate the presence or absence of SpA simultaneously in both CD and non-CD cohorts. RESULTS: 356/590 (60.3%) patients with CD participated in this study...

Current diagnostic classification criteria recommend elevated titres of anti-cardiolipin (aCL) and/or anti-beta(2)GPI antibody by ELISA IgG or IgM and/or lupus anticoagulant (LA) to confirm antiphospholipid syndrome (APS). Although IgA aPL antibodies have been shown to be pathogenic in animal models of APS, their clinical significance has remained elusive. We report four cases of exclusive IgA anti-beta(2)GPI antibody sero-positivity with concomitant clinical manifestations associated with APS. Four of the five patients were LA negative...

Human B cell hybridomas were established to define new autoantigens of importance for autoimmune diseases such as rheumatoid arthritis (RA). One lgG1, lambda monoclonal antibody (FKN-E12), was derived from synovial B lymphocytes of a patient with sero-negative RA. The purified lg was used to select specifically binding peptides from a random peptide phage display library. Only one epitope with the heptamer sequence HLTFGPG was detected and named RASFp1. Very similar and partly identical sequences are found in the variable region of lg kappa light chains in position 96-101, at the junction of framework 2 and the J-region...

The antiphospholipid syndrome may occur either in association with systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE) or as a primary condition. Diagnostic criteria include the detection of antiphospholipid antibodies using cardiolipin antigen (anticardiolipin antibodies, ACA) or lupus anticoagulant, and at least two clinical manifestations, primarily venous or arterial thrombosis, thrombocytopenia or repeated miscarriage. Among 200 patients with various rheumatic diseases, a pathological ACA test in excess of 44 U/ml was detected with ELISA in 81 cases (41%), and of these 30% had values exceeding 100 U/ml...

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Study of hospital activity analysis data over a ten-year period in a district general hospital show that nephrotic syndrome is uncommon in the elderly. The spectrum of histology, however, is no different from the younger adults. The other interesting findings were: diabetic elderly with nephrotic syndrome may have minimal change, therefore should have renal biopsy; and occurrence of sero-negative lupus nephritis in a 90-year-old male and a focal glomerulo-nephritis in a 75-year-old female.

CIA can be viewed as a multifactorial animal model of experimentally-induced autoimmunity that is targeted to joint tissues and under multiple gene control. Thus, although induction of CIA requires immune reactivity to type II collagen, a high immune response to type II collagen is not pathognomonic of CIA, indicating that determinant specificity is of crucial importance. Also, both RT1-linked and non-RT1-linked gene directed functions are involved in the final clinical response to immunization with type II collagen...

Immunoelectron microscopy was used to localize membrane attack complex (MAC) and hepatitis B e (HBe) antigen in renal tissue specimens from a total of 9 patients with membranous nephropathy (MN); 6 with MN associated with a hepatitis B virus (HBV) infection, 2 with idiopathic MN, and 1 with lupus nephritis. All the patients were proteinuric, and 2 patients were classified as stage I-II, 6 as stage II, and 1 as stage IV. MAC, along with IgG and C3, was distributed within the subepithelial electron dense deposits in all the stages...

Synovial membrane taken by needle biopsy from the knee joint of 61 patients with various rheumatic diseases were studied using immunofluorescence methods. Staining techniques and their controls were detailed. Classical statistical tests and principal components multifactorial analysis of the data emphasized some differences between the pathological groups. Connective tissue diseases seemed to be characterized by plasma cells fluorescence and mixed immunoglobulins and complement deposits. These were mostly localized to extracellular spaces in sero-positive rheumatoid arthritis and to blood vessels in sero-negative rheumatoid arthritis and systemic lupus erythematosus...