SLE and Serum Complement: Causative, Concomitant or Coincidental?
September 2017
in “
The Open Rheumatology Journal
”
TLDR Low serum complement levels in SLE patients don't always match with disease flares; monitoring C3 and C4 is useful, but cell-bound complement products might better indicate disease activity.
The document reviewed the significance of serum complement levels in diagnosing and monitoring Systemic Lupus Erythematosus (SLE). It covered a literature review spanning from 1972 to 2017 and discussed the interpretation of low serum complement levels in SLE patients. The authors concluded that while complement activation is important in SLE pathophysiology, low serum complement levels do not consistently correlate with disease flares. They recommended continuing to monitor serum levels of C3 and C4 but also suggested that measuring cell-bound complement activation products (CB-CAPS) might more accurately reflect disease activity. The document also mentioned the Avise Lupus test, which has shown high sensitivity and specificity for SLE, and the inclusion of low serum complement levels in the ACR and SLICC criteria for SLE classification. The need for further research to validate the use of CB-CAPS in SLE diagnosis and monitoring was emphasized. No conflicts of interest were declared, and the research did not involve human or animal subjects.
