A study of 20 SLE patients with intravenous immunoglobulin - clinical and serologic response

Objective: To test the clinical response of systemic lupus erythematosus (S LE) patients to intravenous immunoglobulins (IVIg), and whether the clinica l response of IVIg treatment in SLE is accompanied by modification of SLE-a ssociated autoantibodies/antibodies (Abs) and complement levels. Methods: Twenty SLE patients were treated with high-dose (2 g/kg) IVIg mont hly, in a 5-d schedule. Each patient received between 1-8 treatment courses . They were evaluated for the clinical response, Systemic Lupus Activity Me asure (SLAM) score before and after IVIg, levels of antinuclear antibody (A NA), dsDNA (double-stranded DNA), SS-A or SS-B, ENA (extractable nuclear an tigens), C-3 and C-4 levels before and after the treatment, and before and after each treatment course. Results: A beneficial clinical response following IVIg treatment was noted in 17 out of 20 patients (85%). Few clinical manifestations responded more to treatment: arthritis, fever, thrombocytopenia, and neuropsychiatric lupu s. In 9 patients evaluated before and after IVIg, mean SLAM score decreased from 19.3 +/- 4.7 to 4 +/- 2.9 (P < 0.0001). There was a tendency towards abnormal levels of complement and Abs before IVIg courses among the treatme nt responders compared with the non-responders, and similarly the former te nded to have normalization of their abnormal levels more than the latter. T hese differences were found statistically significant only with respect to C-4 and SS-A or SS-B levels before IVIg courses. Conclusion: IVIg has a high response rate among SLE patients. A combination of clinical manifestations, Abs and complement levels may aid in the futur e in predicting who among SLE patients will benefit more from IVIg treatmen t.