Objective To investigate the relationship between IL-18 and apoptosis in patients with SLE by using testing the changes of IL-18 and soluble Fas/soluble Fas ligand in sera from the patients.Methods 58 patients with SLE were divided into three groups according to their SLEDAI score;sera from 58 patients,and 30 normal controls were tested for IL-18 and sFas/sFasL using ELISA assay.Results The level of IL-18 and sFas in sera from SLE patients was significantly higher than that of normal controls(P0 05).Besides,the increased level of IL-18 was correlated well with the increased level of sFas (?=0 496,P0 5).Conclusion The increased level of IL-18 may result in the elevation of serum sFas/sFasL in patients with SLE.They may play important roles in the pathogenesis of SLE.

Objective To evaluate the significance of positive autoantibodies number in antinuclear antibodies(ANAs) spectrum for the diagnosis of systemic lupus erythematosus(SLE).Methods A total of 1 297 patients were included in this study,among them 148 cases were SLE,317 cases were non-SLE rheumatic diseases,99 cases were nephropathy,210 cases were hematological diseases,and 523 cases were other diseases as the control group.The ANAs level in each group was detected by immunoblotting.The rate comparison adopted the chi square test.The value of positive autoantibodies number in diagnosing SLE was analyzed by receiver operating characteristic(ROC) curve.Results The positive autoantibodies number had good diagnostic value for SLE.The area under the curve was 0.934;the positive rate of autoantibodies(AAbs) in the SLE group was 93.92 ％,which was much higher than that in other groups(P＜0.01).When the number of positive-AAbs was ≥3,the positive likelihood ratio was greater than 10(72.78),showing a very good predictive value for the diagnosis of SLE.Conclusion Three or more kinds of positive-AAbs is highly suggestive of SLE.