The use of T cell subtyping to distinguish rheumatoid arthritis from systemic lupus erythematosus

Traycoff, R.B.; Rogers, W.W.; Gregory, S.A.

Journal of Rheumatology 8(3): 494-497

1981


ISSN/ISBN: 0315-162X
PMID: 6974781
Document Number: 182604
The use of T cell subtyping to distinguish rheumatoid arthritis (RA) from systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE) was evaluated. We determined the distribution of IgG Fe receptor T cells (TG), IgM Fc receptor T cells (TM), and T cells lacking Fc receptors (Tnull) in 17 patients with RA and 7 patients with SLE. All RA patients including 3 antinuclear antibody positive-rheumatoid factor negative cases had normal numbers and percentages of TG, TM, and Tnull, whereas all SLE patients had a relative and absolute deficiency of TG. This TG lymphopenia was a better discriminator for SLE (7 of 7 SLE, 0 of 17 RA) than anti-DNA antibodies, hypocomplementemia, circulating immune complexes or total number of T cells.

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