COMPARISON OF CLINICAL AND LABORATORY PARAMETERS FOR SYSTEMIC LUPUS-ERYTHEMATOSUS ACTIVITY IN ISRAELIS VERSUS EUROPEANS

The clinical activity of systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE) may be inf luenced by ethnic and environmental factors. The Consensus group on Ac tivity Criteria for SLE attempted in a multicenter study to determine well-accepted criteria for disease activity. Of the 704 randomly assig ned patients, 41 (5.8%) were from Israel. A detailed history including epidemiological, clinical and laboratory data was recorded. Significa nt differences were found between Israeli and European patients in the occurrence of Raynaud's phenomenon [12 (30%) vs. 358 (51%), respectiv ely (P <0.05)] and skin vasculitis [6 (15%) vs. 216 (34%), respectivel y (P <0.05)]. In addition to those clinical differences, significant d ifferences were also found in the occurrence of VDRL, low complement l evels and lupus anticoagulant. Additional differences were found in so me laboratory data, indicating differences in the sensitivity of the v arious laboratories. We conclude that the differences between the Isra eli and European groups in the clinical data can be attributed mainly to environmental factors (weather, viruses), and in the laboratory dat a to ethnic differences (e.g., HLA) and to the different diagnostic me thods used.