Abstract

Rheumatoid arthritis (RA) and Systemic Lupus Erythematosus (SLE) both are the systemic autoimmune diseases. Their etiology is still unknown but it is believed that genetic, immunological and environmental factors are involved in the pathogenesis of these diseases. A total of 61 SLE patients were included in the study. This study is purely related to SLE patients. Here, anti-mutated citrullinated vimentin (MCV) (Orgentec, Mainz, Germany) is detected in SLE patients by an ELISA at a cut-off value 20 U/ml. Of these 61 SLE patients, 19 had SLE overlapping with rheumatoid arthritis, 1 had SLE with Budd-Chiari syndrome, 2 had SLE with scleroderma while 20 were the total cases of lupus nephritis. Lupus nephritis patients were further subdivided into two groups: one group included 14 SLE patients with lupus nephritis alone and the second group included 6 SLE patients overlapping with Lupus nephritis (LN) and Rheumatoid arthritis. Of the 19 SLE patients with rheumatoid arthritis, 6 were also suffering from lupus nephritis. These results suggest high specificity and sensitivity of anti-MCV for SLE patients with rheumatoid arthritis.

Key words: Rheumatoid arthritis, Budd-Chiari syndrome, systemic lupus erythematosus, mutated citrullinated vimentin.