Tehseen Iqbal, Syed Danish Haseen Ahmed, Sadia Ikhlaq Sheikh, Fauzia Imtiaz and Muhammad Ahsan

ABSTRACT

Objective: To find out the role of serum prolactin as a biochemical parameter for assessing the disease severity in female suffering from rheumatoid arthritis and systemic lupus erythematosus.

Study Design: Observational / case-control Study.

Place and Duration of Study: This study was conducted at the Basic Medical Sciences Institute, Jinnah Postgraduate Medical Centre, Karachi from January 2014 to June 2016. 

Materials and Methods: A total of 105 female subjects of fertile age were included in this study, comprising of 35 newly diagnosed cases in each group of SLE and RA, while 35 healthy controls were enrolled for comparison. All the RA and SLE cases were diagnosed by using selection criteria based on American Rheumatology Association. Disease severity was measured by principally using Duke Severity of Illness score (DUSOI), while serum prolactin was analyzed by ELISA.

Results: Significantly higher disease severity, ESR and serum prolactin was found among SLE subjects when compared to both RA and control groups. Similarly, serum prolactin and ESR was found significantly higher among subjects in RA group when compared to controls. Statistically significant strong positive correlation of serum prolactin with disease severity in both RA and SLE subjects having r value (Spearman's correlation) of 0.686 and 0.729 were observed respectively.

Conclusion: In this study, statistically significant strong correlation of serum prolactin with disease severity confirms the role of prolactin as a biochemical parameter for assessing the disease severity among RA and SLE subjects. In addition, our findings also suggest that the therapeutic modulation of prolactin secretion may also help to decrease the disease severity among RA and SLE subjects.

Key Words: Prolactin, Autoimmune Diseases, Systemic Lupus Erythematosus, Rheumatoid Arthritis  

Citation of article: Iqbal T, Ahmed SDH, Sheikh SI, Imtiaz F, Ahsan M. Serum Prolactin: Biochemical Parameter for Assessing Disease Severity among Rheumatoid Arthritis and Systemic Lupus Erythematosus.