Relationships of hla-dr and mt antigens to autoantibody expression in systemic lupus erythematosus

✍ Scribed by Alejandro Alvarellos; Joseph M. Ahearn; Thomas T. Provost; Carole A Dorsch; Mary Betty Stevens; Wilma B. Bias; Frank C. Arnett

• Publisher: John Wiley and Sons
• Year: 1983
• Tongue: English
• Weight: 295 KB
• Volume: 26
• Category: Article
• ISSN: 0004-3591
• DOI: 10.1002/art.1780261222

✦ Synopsis

have excluded this index from our nutritional assessment as its use may not be valid in patients with inflammatory joint disease.

In addition, we have found significantly lower serum levels of albumin, transferrin, zinc, and folic acid in the RA patients, 12 (30%) of whom had combined anthropometric and biochemical abnormalities which, by defined criteria (7, 8), indicated a malnourished state.

Thus, there appears to be mounting evidence that RA may be associated with impaired nutritional status. It is therefore important that the question of diet in RA be critically examined, since an ambivalent attitude may only serve to encourage the determined patient to embark upon long-term dietary therapies that could exacerbate any existing nutritional deficiencies and further compromise the immune status.