The clinical manifestations of 131 rheumatic disease patients with anti-Sm antibody were studied. A variety of standard tests was utilized in the study, namely, the FANA test with mouse kidney as substrate for the assay of ANA, the Crithidia test for anti-double stranded DNA (anti-dsDNA) and double immunodiffusion for detecting antibodies to extractable nuclear antigens. The patients were grouped according to the presence of anti-Sm alone, or anti-Sm with some other antibodies. There were 17 with anti-Sm alone; 55 with anti-Sm+anti-RNP; 15 with anti-Sm+anti-dsDNA; and 44 with anti-Sm+anti-RNP. The result of our study showed that although anti-Sm could be found in other diseases, it was exclusively detected in SLE only if anti-dsDNA was also present. Further, the SLE patients with anti-Sm alone had more frequent central nervous system manifestations than other groups of patients. The renal manifestation was observed more frequently in the group of SLE patients with anti-Sm+anti-dsDNA (92.9%). Among other major manifestations, haematologic involvement had a tendency to be less common in the group of patients with anti-Sm alone. The study concludes that the presence of anti-Sm antibody may be of some value to predict the clinical outcome.

-Pupose. Systemic Lupus Erythematosus (SLE) is a multifactoral chronic autoimmune disease with unidentified etiology. Imbalance of oxidative status is one possible cause of active disease. Plasma malondialdehyde (MDA) and plasma glutathione (GSH) level have been used as a determinate of oxidative status. Limited data has examined these 2 parameters by severity of SLE. Methods. We determined whether there was an association between plasma MDA and plasma GSH level with the severity of SLE. Forty four SLE patients (2 Men and 42 Women) and twenty healthy volunteers (3 Men, 17 women) participated in this study. SLE participants were classified by the severity of disease (mild, moderate or severe). The plasma MDA and plasma Glutathione levels were measured. The correlation of plasma MDA and plasma GSH levels with the severity of SLE disease were determined. Results. Plasma MDA levels with different severity of SLE (mild, moderate, and severe of SLE patients) were not significantly different from those of the control group (p=1.0).Plasma GSH levels were significantly lower in the moderate and severe SLE groups than the control group (p=0.001). In addition, a significant correlation between plasma GSH and severity of SLE was observed. (Pearson correlation coefficient = -0.428, p <0.001). The relationship could be described by the equation GSH level (μM) = (-7.624) SLEDAI score + 545.90. Conclusion. A significant correlation between plasma GSH and SLE severity exists that may aid evaluation of the disease severity and usefulness of the treatment of SLE.