Introduction:

Systemic lupus erythematosus is the model of autoimmune disease. Several types of immunoglobulins are involved in the development of the disease, mainly IgG, IgM and IgA.

Objective:

To describe the potential use of the albumin/globulin ratio as an indicator of activity in systemic lupus erythematosus.

Development:

fifty per cent of patients with systemic lupus erythematosus exhibit hypoalbuminemia with hypergammaglobulinemia. Hypoalbuminemia is mainly related to the presence of lupus nephritis. The half of patients with lupus nephritis develops proteinuria with values of nephrotic syndrome. The proteinuria equals or partially reverses the albumin/globulin ratio. The inverted albumin/globulin ratio is insufficient to establish the presence of lupus activity. Other clinical entities producing polyclonal hypergammaglobulinaemia should be excluded. The systemic lupus erythematosus activity criteria increase the sensitivity of the inverted albumin/globulin ratio.

Conclusions:

The interpretation of the albumin/globulin ratio requires the activity estimation by different clinical criteria (SLICC, SLEDAI, BILAG). The inverted albumin/globulin ratio cannot be interpreted as a stand-alone indicator of disease activity in every systemic lupus erythematosus patients.

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