Background & aim:

Systemic lupus erythematosus is an autoimmune disease, its pathogenesis encompasses numerous organs. About 50% of cases of SLE are anemic; multiple pathways are attributed to the occurrence of anemia. Anemia of chronic disease is generally due to reduced erythropoietin function, reduced production and low response to erythropoietin action on red blood cells, which play a role in the development of anemia of chronic disease seen in several conditions with autoimmune etiology. There were three main contributions in our research: First: To evaluate the types of anemia associated with SLE. Second: To evaluate the role of erythropoietin in pathogenesis of SLE associated anemia. Third: To evaluate the correlation between level of anemia and erythropoietin level.

Subjects & methodology:

150 patients with SLE were registered in our study. SLE activity was measured by SLE disease activity index.

Results:

Our study encompassed (150) SLE patients, 20 men and 130 women and (50) controls, 9 men and 41 women. Among them, anemia of chronic disease was the most prevalent (41.3%), then anemia due to iron deficiency (33.3%), and lastly anemia of autoimmune etiology (25.3%). Our study also showed that there was statistically significant dissimilarity (P value = 0.023) between all groups of anemia in erythropoietin value but there was no significant correlation between erythropoietin and hemoglobin levels in any of the three groups.

Conclusion:

Erythropoietin level variation was detected among the dissimilar groups of anemia but no correlation between hemoglobin level and erythropoietin was found (blunted erythropoietin response).

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