The objective of this project was to determine the prevalence of hyper
prolactinemia (HPRL) in systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE) and to eval
uate the role of prolactin (PRL) as a disease-activity marker. We dete
rmined PRL in a cohort of 182 patients with SLE. Basal prolactin level
s and clinical data (disease-activity index, sere-activity, medication
s) were analyzed in all patients. The findings show only mildly elevat
ed PRL levels in four SLE-patients and normaprolactinemia in 98% (n=17
8), without any association with disease activity.Our results differ f
rom previous studies. HPRL appears not to be prevalent in SLE, nor to
be associated with disease activity.