Research Article Systemic Lupus Erythematosus with and without Anti-dsDNA Antibodies: Analysis from a Large Monocentric Cohort

Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. Objectives. The anti-dsDNA antibodies are a marker for Systemic Lupus Erythematosus (SLE) and 70–98 % of patients test positive. We evaluated the demographic, clinical, laboratory, and therapeutical features of a monocentric SLE cohort according to the anti-dsDNA status. Methods. We identified three groups: anti-dsDNA + (persistent positivity); anti-dsDNA ± (initial positivity and subsequent negativity during disease course); anti-dsDNA − (persistent negativity). Disease activity was assessed by the European Consensus LupusActivityMeasurement (ECLAM).Results.We evaluated 393 patients (anti-dsDNA+: 62.3%; anti-dsDNA±: 13.3%; anti-dsDNA −: 24.4%). The renal involvement was significantly more frequent in anti-dsDNA + (30.2%), compared with anti-dsDNA ± and anti-dsDNA − (21.1 % and 18.7%, resp.