[Application of lymphocytes test in peripheral blood of patients with systemic sclerosis during the treatment].

OBJECTIVE: To explore the significance of lymphocytes in systemic sclerosis (SSc), by detecting the levels of T lymphocytes, B lymphocytes and natural killer (NK) cells, and analyzing the correlation between the lymphocytes and clinical laboratory indexes. METHODS: The numbers and proportion of T, CD4+T, CD8+T, B, and NK cells were detected by flow cytometry in peripheral blood of 32 SSc patients who had taken immunosuppressive drugs and 30 healthy controls (HC). The comparison of the lymphocyte subsets in SSc with them in the HC groups, and the correlation between the lymphocytes and other clinical and laboratory indicators were analyzed by the relevant statistical analysis. RESULTS: Compared with the HC group, the numbers of T, CD4+T, CD8+T, and NK cells in peripheral blood of SSc group, who had taken immunosuppressive drugs, were significantly decreased (P < 0.05). More-over, the proportion of NK cells in peripheral blood of the SSc group was also significantly lower than that in the HC group (P=0.004). In addition, all the lymphocyte subsets were decreased in peripheral blood of more than 65% of the SSc patients who had taken immunosuppressive drugs. Compared with CD4+T normal group, the positivity of Raynaud's phenomenon, erythrocyte sedimentation rate (ESR) and C-reactive protein (CRP) was significantly increased in CD4+T reduction group, respectively (P＝0.024, P < 0.001, P=0.018). ESR was higher in CD8+T reduction group than CD8+T normal group (P＝0.022). The prevalence of fingertip ulcer was significantly increased in B cell decrease group (P=0.019). Compared with NK cell normal group, the prevalence of fingertip ulcer was significantly increased in NK cell lower group (P=0.033), IgM was remarkablely decreased yet (P=0.049). The correlation analysis showed that ESR was negatively correlated with the counts of T lymphocytes (r＝－0.455, P＝0.009), CD4+T lymphocytes (r＝－0.416, P＝0.018), CD8+T lymphocytes (r＝－0.430, P=0.014), B cells (r＝－0.366, P＝0.039). CONCLUSION: The number of CD4+T, CD8+T, B, and NK cells significantly decreased in peripheral blood of SSc patients who had used immunosuppressive drugs, some lymphocyte subsets might be related with Raynaud's phenomenon and fingertip ulcer, and reflected the disease activity by negatively correlated with ESR and CRP; the numbers of lymphocyte subsets in peripheral blood should be detected regularly in SSc patients who had taken immunosuppressive drugs.

[Significance of anti-carbamylated fibrinogen antibodies in systemic lupus erythematosus].

OBJECTIVE: Antibodies against carbamylated protein (anti-CarP) were found to be a promising marker to evaluate joint damage and disease activity in patients with rheumatoid arthritis (RA). However, whether anti-CarP antibodies were present in systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE) remained ambiguity. We have therefore undertaken this study to assess the levels of serum anti-CarP antibodies and to evaluate their clinical value in SLE. METHODS: Serum levels of antibodies against carbamylatedfibrinogen (anti-CarP) were measured by enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) in 105 SLE patients and 73 healthy controls. Other clinical and laboratory measurements of the SLE patients were collected from medical records. Data analyses between anti-CarP antibodies and other laboratory measurements were performed using SPSS software for Windows 24.0. RESULTS: The levels of serum anti-CarP antibodies in the patients with SLE were significantly higher than those in the healthy controls (P<0.05). There were significant differences between the anti-CarP-positive group and anti-CarP-negative group in many clinical features. The disease duration, values of ESR, CRP, RF, anti-cardiolipin, anti-dsDNA, D-dipolymer, IgA and IgG were significantly higher in the anti-CarP-positive group compared with the negative group (P<0.05). Conversely, the values of complement 3, complement 4, peripheral blood RBC, and hemoglobin were significantly lower in anti-CarP-positive group than in the negative group(P<0.05). Moreover, the incidence of increase of erythrocyte sedimentation rate (ESR), C-reactive protein (CRP), rheumatoid factor (RF), D-dipolymer, decrease of peripheral blood RBC, hemoglobin, complement 3, complement 4, and positive rate of anti-dsDNA were significant different between the two groups(P<0.05). The positive rate of anti-CarP (21.9%) was higher than that of anti-Sm (15.24%), and close to anti-ribosomal P protein (22.86%) in our SLE patients. In addition, anti-CarP antibody was present in the SLE patients lacking the disease specific antibodies, including anti-Sm (anti-CarP positive rate 20.2%, 18/89), anti-dsDNA (anti-CarP positive rate 9.3%, 4/43), anti-nucleosome (anti-CarP positive rate 12.5%, 6/48), and anti-ribosomal P protein antibody (anti-CarP positive rate 20.9%, 17/81). Moreover, the high levels of anti-CarP antibodies were correlated with short disease duration, low C3, C4, RBC, and hemoglobin (P<0.05), high ESR, CRP, IgA, IgG, RF, anti-cardiolipin, anti-dsDNA, and D-dipolymer (P<0.05). CONCLUSION: The level of anti-CarP antibody was increased in the serum of patients with SLE. There were correlations between anti-CarP antibodies and clinical and laboratory indicators of SLE patients.

[Clinical significance of detection of soluble interleukin 2 receptor alpha chain in the assessment of rheumatoid arthritis disease activity].

OBJECTIVE: To evaluate soluble interleukin-2 receptor alpha chain (sIL-2Rα, sCD25) in serum for the determination of rheumatoid arthritis (RA) activity. METHODS: Peripheral blood was collected from 108 patients with RA, 39 patients with osteoarthritis (OA) and 50 healthy control subjects, and synovial fluids were from 40 patients with RA. The sera from the patients with RA, the disease control group (osteoarthritis), the healthy control group, and the synovial fluids of the RA patients were detected by enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA).The clinical manifestations and laboratory parameters of the patients with RA were recorded and the correlation with the serum sCD25 level was analyzed. RESULTS: The serum sCD25 concentration in RA group was (2 886±1 333) ng/L, the serum sCD25 concentration in OA group was (2 090±718) ng/L, and the serum sCD25 concentration in healthy group was (1 768±753) ng/L. The serum sCD25 level in the patients with RA was significantly higher than that in the disease controls and healthy controls (P<0.001). Sensitivity of serum sCD25 in the diagnosis of RA was 66.1% and specificity was 83.0%;serum sCD25 levels and erythrocyte sedimentation rate (r=0.321, P=0.001), C-reactive protein (r=0.446, P<0.001), DAS28 score (r=0.324, P<0.001), joint tenderness count (r=0.203, P=0.024), D-dimer levels (r=0.383, P<0.001), age (r=0.24, P=0.007), IgG (r=0.207, P=0.028), HRF-IgG (r=0.345, P=0.034) showed a significant positive correlation, and disease duration (r=-0.206, P=0.021) showed a negative correlation with sCD25;In patients with rheumatoid arthritis, the positive rates of serum ESR, CRP, and sCD25 were 14.3% (2 cases), 14.3% (2 cases), and 71.4% (10 cases) in the low disease activity group. The positive rates of serum ESR, CRP and sCD25 in the moderate disease activity group were 94.2% (49 cases), 82.7% (43 cases), and 86.5% (45 cases). The positive rates of serum ESR, CRP, and sCD25 in the high disease activity group were 100% (42 cases), 95.2% (40 cases), and 90.5% (38 cases);36 cases of ESR and/or CRP were negative (about 33.3%) in 108 patients, serum sCD5 levels of 17 cases in these 36 cases (about 47.2%)increased, of which 14 cases (about 82.4%) had a DAS28 score higher than 3.2. CONCLUSION: The serum sCD25 has a high specificity for diagnosis of RA and a poor sensitivity. The serum level is closely related to the activity of RA, indicating that sCD25 may be involved in the inflammatory process of RA and may become a new inflammatory marker of RA. It is more meaningful for detection of serum sCD25 when RA is active, but ESR and/or CRP is negative.

Diagnostic value of antibodies to phosphatidylserine/prothrombin complex for antiphospholipid syndrome in Chinese patients.

To evaluate the diagnosis value of antibodies to phosphatidylserine/prothrombin complex (aPS/PT) in patients with antiphospholipid syndrome (APS) and to determine the clinical features of APS patients with avidity of aPS/PT. Serum samples were collected from 108 APS patients. Sixty patients with pregnancy morbidity, 37 patients with thrombosis without a history of autoimmune diseases, and 89 healthy blood donors were included as the control group. The enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) test was performed to detect the concentration of aPS/PT, including IgG/M, IgG, and IgM forms, in the same serum sample. The chi-square (χ2) test was used to examine the difference of frequencies of antibodies in APS patients and patients with other diseases. Spearman correlation analysis was performed to investigate the relationship between aPS/PT and other clinical/laboratory parameters. aPS/PT was detectable in 68 (63.0%) of the 108 APS patients, 12 (13.2%) of the 91 disease control patients and 1 (1.1%) of the healthy controls. It was strongly correlated with the activity of lupus anticoagulant (LA) (OR 15.952, 95% CI 7.132-35.678; P < 0.001). The frequency of aPS/PT was 56.9% in anti-cardiolipid antibody (aCL)-negative, 60.5% anti-ß2 glycoprotein I antibody (aß2GPI)-negative, and 50.0% in both aCL and aß2GPI negative APS patients. The IgG aPS/PT was significantly associated with arterial and venous thrombosis. The aPS/PT antibody could play an important role in the diagnosis of APS, especially in patients with negative aCL and aß2GPI. It was positively related to thrombotic events in APS.

[Significance and diagnostic value of synovial fluid anti-cyclic citrullinated peptide antibody and anti-mutated citrullinated vimentin antibodies in patients with serum negative rheumatoid arthritis].

OBJECTIVE: To explore the significance of synovial fluid (SF) anti-cyclic citrullinated peptide (CCP) antibodies and anti-mutated citrullinated vimentin (MCV) antibodies in the diagnosis of serum negative rheumatoid arthritis (SNRA). METHODS: Enzyme linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) method was apllied in the detection of two groups of patients with knee joint fluid resistance against CCP antibody and antibody of MCV, the experimental group to SNRA patients, a total of 29 cases, and the control for patients with osteoarthritis (OA), a total of 28 cases, and clinical manifestations and laboratory parameters of the two groups were collected. RESULTS: The positive rate of synovial fluid anti-CCP was 34.5% in the SNRA patients, which was significantly higher than 10.7% in the control patients(χ2=4.571, P<0.05). The positive rate of synovial fluid anti-MCV was 20.7% in the SNRA patients, which was significantly higher than 7.1% in the control patients(χ2=2.167, P>0.05). The SNRA patients of SF anti-CCP and anti-MCV positive had no significant difference from the SNRA patients of SF anti-CCP and anti-MCV negative in age, course and morning stiffness. The levels of erythrocyte sedimentation rate (ESR), C-reactive protein(CRP) and DAS28 scores in the SF anti-CCP positive patients were higher than those of the SF anti-CCP negative patients. The levels of ESR, CRP and DAS28 scores in the SF anti-MCV positive patients were higher than those of the SF anti-MCV negative patients, (all P<0.01). SF anti-CCP had correlation with ESR, CRP(r=0.567, P<0.01; r=0.664, P<0.01). SF anti-MCV had correlation with ESR, CRP (r=0.344, P<0.01; r=0.749, P<0.01). CONCLUSION: SF anti-CCP and anti-MCV are helpful for the diagnosis of SNRA and judgement of SNRA activity.