N. Tulek et al., SOLUBLE INTERCELLULAR-ADHESION MOLECULE-1 (SICAM-1) IN PATIENTS WITH SYSTEMIC LUPUS-ERYTHEMATOSUS, Clinical rheumatology, 15(1), 1996, pp. 47-50
Circulating sICAM-1 is known to be elevated in various inflammatory di
sorders. It is further suggested that elevated levels correlate well w
ith disease activity in several autoimmune disorders. The objectives o
f this study are to determine the serum sICAM-1 levels in patients wit
h systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE) and correlate sICAM-1 levels with
clinical and laboratory (ESR, CRP, anti-dsDNA) measures of disease ac
tivity. Forty-one patients (34 female, 7 male) all fulfilling 1982 ARA
classification criteria for SLE and 16 healthy controls (8 female, 8
male) were included in the study. Disease activity was measured accord
ing to SLEDAI., sICAM-1 was determined by ELISA. Mean sICAM-1 in SLE p
atients (349+/-161 ng/ml) were significantly higher than in the contro
ls (216+/-85 ng/ml) (p < 0.005), Although slightly elevated in active
patients, there was no statistically significant difference between me
an sICAM-1 levels of active and inactive SLE patients (349+/-183 ng/ml
and 316+/-103 ng/ml respectively) (p > 0.05). We could not find a cor
relation between sICAM-1 levels and any organ involvements, Similarly,
no significant correlation was found between ESR, CRP, anti-dsDNA and
sICAM-1, These results suggest that although higher than normal, sICA
M-1 levels in SLE do not provide additional information over conventio
nal activity markers.