Lupus AND steroids AND sodium

A 20-year-old patient had systemic lupus erythematosus and extensive generalized discoid disease that failed to respond to conventional treatment with topical steroids and high doses of hydroxychloroquine sulfate (Plaquenil). The skin lesions responded dramatically to 100 mg of azathioprine sodium daily, flared when the drug treatment was discontinued, and again responded on reinstatement of the same dosage of azathioprine. The case report suggests that extensive discoid skin lesions can be successfully treated with oral azathioprine...

In 35 initially normotensive patients with chronic glomerulonephritis and lupus nephritis (including 27 patients with nephrotic syndrome; NS), blood pressure (BP), urinary sodium excretion, plasma renin activity (PRA), plasma aldosterone level (PA), urinary aldosterone excretion (Au and blood volume were measured before and during prednisolone treatment. In 7 patients (all with NS) steroid-induced hypertension has developed. The patients prone to develop hypertension were hypervolemic nephrotics with initial depression of PRA, PA, Au, and severe sodium retention...

Bradykinin is degraded in human plasma by a carboxypeptidase to yield desArg9-bradykinin (DBK) which is then digested by angiotensin-converting enzyme (ACE) to the pentapeptide Arg-Pro-Pro-Gly-Phe and the tripeptide Ser-Pro-Phe. We have studied the rate of kinin degradation by each of these enzymes in patients with rheumatoid arthritis (RA) and with systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE), compared with the degradation rate in degenerative joint disease and normal subjects. Carboxypeptidase activity was the same in all individuals, but ACE activity was increased in the RA and SLE patients...

In our previous report, we demonstrated that the functions of phagocytes and lymphocytes were defective in patients with systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE). In an attempt to further clarify the defective mechanisms of these cells, 25 active SLE, 10 bronchial asthma patients (BA) on corticosteroids and 25 age and sex-matched normal individuals were investigated for the expression of membraneous C3b receptors, ionophore-induced 45Ca(2+)-uptake, mitochondrial potentials and phagocytic activity of neutrophils. We found decreased expression of C3b receptors on SLE PMN in both resting (37...