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Query: UMLS:C0024141 (systemic lupus erythematosus)
 44,322 document(s) hit in 31,850,051 MEDLINE articles (0.00 seconds)

The complications arising out of the installation of pacemakers are listed and classified and it is suggested that a syndrome characterized by recurrent pleural effusion recalcitrant to the usual medico-depletive therapies, observed in four patients with pacemakers, should be included among such complications. The clinical pictures of the syndrome is described in detail and particular attention is paid to its date of onset in relation to installation of the pacemaker, early symptomatology, the most typical symptoms, clinico-humoral development, prognosis and therapy. Some theoretical and practical remarks are also offered, specifically three pathogenetic suggestions are formulated on the basis of clinical and developmental features but mainly in relation to humoral and immunological findings. These suggestions stress alternative interpretations of the syndrome: A) as an autoimmune disease arising secondary to surgical denaturation of myocardial and/or endocardial autoantigens; B) as a systemic autoimmune disease due to congenital or acquired insufficiency of immunological homeostasis; C) as a monosymptomatic pleural form of systemic lupus erythematodes with late clinical outbreak. The fascinating pathogenetic, clinical, biological and therapeutic resemblances between the present syndrome and the post-infarctual syndrome of Dressler and Johnson's post-pericardiotomic syndrome are pointed out and it is suggested that complications of medical nature already described as being secondary to the installation of pacemakers, such as endocarditis and pericarditis, should be looked at from an autoimmune type of pathogenetic viewpoint. Finally, in the light of personal observations, the need for immunological study of high risk patients, namely relations of patients with autoimmune diseases, is stressed. All candidates for pacemaker installation should also be included. Routine screening of this type would take on enormous practical importance as it would enable preventive or curative treatment to be undertaken to modify the immunitary balance of those subjects in whom pacemaker installation is liable to trigger off critical, irreversible breakdown in immunitary homoeostasis of which the syndrome in question would seem to be the most dramatic, but perhaps no the only, clinical manifestation.
Minerva Med 1976 Sep 01
PMID:[On a syndrome of immunopathic type with pleural and systemic localization observed in patients with intracavitary electrostimulators. Considerations on 4 cases]. 96 39

Although the association of cryoglobulinemia with hypocomplementemia and tissue injury in systemic lupus erythematosus is well recognized, composition of cryoprecipitates in terms of circulating antigens and antibodies in this disease is less clear. To clarify this question, cryoprecipitates from patients with SLE were examined with sensitive assay techniques for certain antipolynucleotide antibodies and DNA antigen. DNA antibodies were highly enriched relative to serum levels in the majority of cryoprecipitates. DNA antigen was also demonstrable. Antibody to ribonucleoprotein, although less frequently present, was similarly enriched in certain cryoprecipitates. In contrast, anti-double strand RNA, which was commonly detectable in relatively high titer in serum, was only minimally concentrated in a minority of cryoprecipitates. Absorption experiments using red blood cells heavily coated with polynucleotide antigen indicated that a major proportion of the IgG in certain cryoprecipitates was specific antibody. The data strongly suggest that the cryoprecipitates in systemic lupus erythematosus represent circulating immune complexes that are soluble at 37 degrees C and come out of solution in the cold. The marked concentration of immune complexes in the cryoglobulin offers a simple and direct method for determination of the nature of the complexes. The accumulated evidence obtained in the present study indicates that these complexes closely reflect, in their composition, the circulating immune complexes which are most significant pathogenetically in renal tissue injury.
J Clin Invest 1975 Sep
PMID:Specific concentration of polynucleotide immune complexes in the cryoprecipitates of patients with systemic lupus erythematosus. 108 Apr 89

The presence of antibodies to native DNA, single-stranded DNA, and double-stranded RNA was determined for 37 patients with selective IgA deficiency, 11 patients with Wiskott-Aldrich syndrome, seven patients with common variable agammaglobulinemia, 14 patients with ataxia telangiectasia, six patients with intestinal lymphangiectasia, and one patient with Nezelof syndrome. Of 37 patients with selective IgA deficiency, 11 had antibodies to at least one nucleic acid; six had antibodies to native DNA, seven had antibodies to single-stranded DNA, and four had antibodies to double-stranded RNA. The only other congenital immune deficiency disease studied in which antibodies to nucleic acids were found was the Wiskott-Aldrich syndrome; in this group three of 11 patients had antibodies to native DNA. Retrospective analysis of our patients with SLE disclosed a 2.6% prevalence of IgA deficiency, a prevalence clearly higher than in the general population. These studies provide further evidence of the association between autoimmunity and abnormalities of IgA production and suggest a relationship between thymic-derived immune regulation and IgA production.
J Pediatr 1976 Sep
PMID:Antibodies to nucleic acids in congenital immune deficiency states. 108 51

One hundred healthy women were examined prospectively during their annual physical examination for any of the preliminary criteria of systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE). No patient had more than three of the criteria; 50 (50%) had none. The preliminary criteria were effective in excluding normal patients. Three of 19 patients taking oral contraceptives had serum antinuclear antibody (ANA), whereas only one of 81 non-pill users had serum ANA (P less than .05). None of these patients with positive ANA had clinical evidence of SLE.
JAMA 1976 Sep 27
PMID:Classification criteria for systemic lupus erythematosus. Frequency in normal patients. 108 75

Nine individuals from four families of patients with systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE) were studied by sucrose density gradient fractionation and filter radioimmunoassay for the presence of 19S IgM and 7S IgG antibodies to DNA, poly rA, and poly rA-poly rU. One individual in each family was totally asymptomatic, and at least one had actively systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE). The results indicate: (1) a correlation between 7S antibody to DNA and RNA and active SLE, and (2) the presence of 19S antibody to RNA in the asymptomatic relatives. These findings suggest that SLE may be a disorder of immunological regulation. The distribution of antibodies between IgM and IgG is closely related to disease severity. the asymptomatic relatives may have a partial regulatory abnormality resulting in the limited production of IgM antibodies to RNA. SLE patients may have a more complex failure of regulation permitting the additional synthesis of IgG antibodies to DNA and RNA.
Clin Exp Immunol 1976 Sep
PMID:Immunologic regulation of spontaneous antibodies to DNA and RNA I. Significance of IgM and IgG antibodies in SLE patients and asymptomatic relatives. 108 77

Serum C4 and C3 concentration and binding of double-stranded-DNA (ds-DNA) were measured in sera from ninety-nine patients with systemic lupus erythematosus and clinical evidence of nephritis. C3 and C4 concentrations correlated poorly with ds-DNA binding. In sera from fifty-three patients, precipitating antibody was sought using the counterimmunoelectrophoretic technique. Precipitating antibody was detected on at least one occasion in 44% of the patients, and these sera with precipitating antibody showed higher binding of ds-DNA and lower C4 concentrations than those without precipitating antibody. In thirty-two patients, serial assessments of the activity of the renal disease were made using decline or improvement in glomerular filtration rate, degree of proteinuria, oedema and hypertension as indices of "activity". All patients were receiving immunosuppressive drugs. Active nephritis was rarely found in patients showing, at that time, a normal serum C4 or normal ds-DNA binding; but a raised ds-DNA binding or lowered serum C4 were found in both active and inactive nephritis. There was no correlation of activity with serum concentrations of C3, or the presence or absence of precipitating antibody. We conclude that measurements of serum-complement concentrations and binding of ds-DNA are of most use in the diagnosis of systemic lupus erythematosus, and that in patients with nephritis and taking immunosuppressive drugs, these tests are of limited use in guiding treatment.
Clin Exp Immunol 1976 Sep
PMID:Disease activity in the nephritis of systemic lupus erythematosus in relation to serum complement concentrations. DNA-binding capacity and precipitating anti-DNA antibody. 108 78

Pulmonary function was measured in a group of 28 patients with systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE) who were free of pulmonary involvement at the time of the study. When compared with age and sex matched controls, the SLE patients had a pattern of restriction with reduced lung volumes and vital capacity. Diffusing capacity was reduced in proportion to the reduction in lung volume. This is felt to be most compatible with inapparent pleural thickening resulting in impaired lung expansion. There was no evidence of airway obstruction on maximal expiratory flow-volume curves. The effect of cigarette smoking in the SLE patients was a reduction in flows at low lung volumes, which was indistinguishable from the effects in the control smokers. Both SLE and control smokers had a significant reduction in DL/VA when compared with control nonsmokers. Pulmonary function was not influenced by the presence of renal disease.
J Rheumatol 1976 Sep
PMID:Pulmonary dysfunction in systemic lupus erythematosus without pulmonary symptoms. 108 64

Since cellular and humoral immune mechanisms were shown to be involved in the pathogenesis of rheumatic diseases, efforts have been made to influence these systems therapeutically. Aside from suppression of the immune response, studies have been conducted to evaluate to what extent immunostimulation might be of value in the treatment of rheumatic diseases. Levamisole, chemically a simple synthetic agent recently shown to have immunorestorative capacities in anergic cancer patients, has been administered in several rheumatic diseases. The drug was administered either continuously or intermittently in a daily dose of 150 mg over several months. In about half of the rheumatoid arthritis patients a significant improvement was noted. Beneficial effects and sometimes even dramatic improvement lere observed in some patients with systemic lupus erythematosus, ankylosing spondylitis and Reiter's syndrome. Levamisole did not alter the course of psoriatic arthritis. Significant adverse reactions were leukopenia and allergic skin reactions. Other side effects were mild and did not require interruption of drug intake. The use of levamisole in rheumatic diseases is still experimental, but with accumulating experience it may provide a true improvement in control of rheumatic diseases.
Schweiz Med Wochenschr 1976 Sep 25
PMID:[Therapy of inflammatory-rheumatic diseases with levamisol, an immunity modulating substance]. 108 57

Immunofluorescent tests have proved to be of diagnostic importance for pemphigus, bullous pemphigoid, cicatricial pemphigoid, systemic lupus erythematosus, and discoid lupus erythematosus. Immunofluorescence test procedures, necessary specimens, and test findings have been reviewed as aids to dentists in the utilization and interpretation of these tests for the study of oral lesions.
Oral Surg Oral Med Oral Pathol 1975 Sep
PMID:Diagnostic importance of immunofluorescence in oral bullous diseases and lupus erythematosus. 110 Nov 28

Of 209 patients who fulfilled the A.R.A. criteria for the diagnosis of systemic lupus erythematosus, 43 were selected for study because each had been treated for at least two years with antimalarials, but had not received antimalarials for at least one subsequent year. In each instance, the antimalarial was discontinued solely because of the development of retinopathy. Each year on antimalarials was matched with a subsequent year off antimalarials for each patient. The year immediately following diagnosis and years of pregnancy were excluded. Paired-t test analysis of matched years revealed that general symptoms (fever, fatigue, weight loss) were less common during years on 500 mg chloroquine daily than during years off the drug (p less than 0.05). Skin manifestations were also less frequent during the years on 500 mg chloroquine daily than during the years off (p less than 0.05). No significant steroid sparing effect was found. However, a greater incidence of flare-ups during the matched years off the drug was statistically significant.
J Rheumatol 1975 Sep
PMID:The efficacy of antimalarials in systemic lupus erythematosus. 110 84


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