A. Orem et al., PLASMA POLYMORPHONUCLEAR LEUKOCYTE ELASTASE LEVELS AND ITS RELATION TO DISEASE-ACTIVITY IN PSORIASIS, Clinica chimica acta, 264(1), 1997, pp. 49-56
Although some increased enzyme activities in PMN leukocytes isolated f
rom the circulation of psoriatic patients have been previously describ
ed, none of these enzymes had been studied in plasma for determination
of disease activity. The purpose of this study was to evaluate whethe
r plasma PMN elastase levels might be a good marker for determination
of disease activity of psoriatic patients. Plasma PMN elastase and som
e acute phase reactants including alpha-1 antitrypsin, alpha-2 macrogl
obulin, fibrinogen, erythrocyte sedimentation rate(ESR), and transferr
in were studied in thirty-nine patients with psoriasis, including 16 c
ontrolled patients, and forty healthy control subjects. PMN elastase a
nd the acute phase reactants except transferrin were found to be signi
ficantly higher in the psoriatic patients than in control subjects. Th
e PMN elastase level in the patients was about 6-fold higher than that
of the control group. The PMN elastase levels in the patients in the
inactive period was two-fold higher than in the control subjects. PMN
elastase was found to correlate significantly with PMN leukocyte count
and alpha-1 antitrypsin in active and inactive periods of the disease
, but with fibrinogen and psoriasis area and severity index (PASI) onl
y in the active period of the disease. We conclude that plasma PMN ela
stase level may be a more specific and sensitive inflammatory marker t
han alpha-1 antitrypsin, alpha-2 macroglobulin, ESR, and may be a good
marker for diagnosis and follow up of the disease activity of the pso
riatic patients. (C) 1997 Elsevier Science B.V.