The Diagnosis Significance of Serum Anti-Nucleosome Antibodies and its Value for Lupus Flare in Systemic Lupus Erythematosus

Objective To assess the utility of anti-nucleosome antibodies(AnuA) for the diagnosis of systemic lupus erythematosus(SLE) and as markers of disease activity.Methods AnuA were detected by enzyme-linked immunosorbent assays (ELISA) in the sera of 67 SLE patients,53 patients with other rheumatic diseasesand 27 healthy controls were also tested.Results The serum level of AnuA in SLE patients was significantly higher than that of the control groups(P0.01).The incidence of AnuA was apparent higher than that of anti-dsDNA,anti-DNP and anti-Sm antibodies(P0.01).The incidence of AnuA in SLE with negative anti-dsDNA,antiDNP and anti-Sm antibodies were 42.9%,52.6% and 62.0% respectively.The sensitivity of combination of AnuA and anti-dsDNA antibody or anti-DNP or anti-Sm antibodies were 70.1%,74.6% and 71.6% respectively.A significantly postive correlation was found between the levels of AnuA and SLEDAI scores(r=0.484,P0.01).Conclusion Our data suggest that the AnuA may be a useful laboratory tests that can help in the diagnosis and assessment of disease activity in SLE.Combination of AnuA and other antibodies can significantly improve the sensitivity of these antibodies in the diagnosis of SLE.