PT  - JOURNAL ARTICLE
AU  - Kutukculer, Necil
AU  - Karaca, Neslihan Edeer
AU  - Azarsiz, Elif
AU  - Aksu, Guzide
AU  - Gulez, Nesrin
TI  - Immunoglobulin Light Chain Levels Can Be Used to Determine Disease Stage in Children with Juvenile Idiopathic Arthritis
AID  - 10.29074/ascls.24.2.93
DP  - 2011 Apr 01
TA  - American Society for Clinical Laboratory Science
PG  - 93--98
VI  - 24
IP  - 2
4099  - http://hwmaint.clsjournal.ascls.org/content/24/2/93.short
4100  - http://hwmaint.clsjournal.ascls.org/content/24/2/93.full
SO  - Clin Lab Sci2011 Apr 01; 24
AB  - OBJECTIVE: Patients with some inflammatory diseases have been shown to have increased levels of immunoglobulin light chains. In this study, we measured the concentrations of immunoglobulin kappa (κ) and lambda (λ) light chains in sera of patients with juvenile idiopathic arthritis (JIA) (study group), familial mediterranean fever (FMF) (disease control group) and in healthy children. Our aim was to compare immunoglobulin light chain levels with other well-known markers of inflammation, such as the erythrocyte sedimentation rate (ESR) and the acute phase reactants (APRs), serum amyloid A (SAA) and C-reactive protein (CRP), to find out if immunoglobulin light chain determinations have any discriminating value in the follow-up of these patients.RESULTS: ESR, CRP, SAA, κ and λ chain levels and λ/IgG ratio showed a statistically significant difference between active and remission stages in JIA patients. κ correlated very well with SAA and ESR in both stages. On the other hand, λ correlated with SAA and ESR only in the remission period. There was no significant difference in κ and λ chain levels between active and remission stages in FMF patients. In addition, κ and λ chain concentrations showed no correlation with other markers of inflammation and immunoglobulin levels neither in entire FMF group nor in different subgroups with respect to clinical status. Immunoglobulin light chains κ and λ as well as levels of three markers of inflammation were found to be significantly higher in JIA patients who were in the active stage of disease when compared to data of healthy childrenCONCLUSION: Ig light chains especially κ chain concentrations are helpful to determine disease stage in JIA patients but with our current data, they do not exhibit superiority to any of the classical tests for inflammation.ABBREVIATIONS: ESR = erythrocyte sedimentation rate, APRs = acute phase reactants, CRP = C-reactive protein, SAA = serum amyloid-A, JIA = juvenile idiopathic arthritis, FMF = familial mediterranean fever, Ig = immunoglobulin, ILAR = International League of Associations for Rheumatology