[Prolactin--a marker of the activity of connective tissue systemic disease?].

UNLABELLED: The ethiopathogenesis of auto-immune diseases has not yet been fully explored. Auto-immune diseases develop in individuals with a genetic pre-disposition. Among the endogenous factors, also sexual hormones play a role, especially prolactin. The objective of the study was to use basal exam and TRH test to determine stimulated prolactin values in patients with a systemic connective tissue disease: systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE), systemic sclerosis, Sjögren's syndrome, dermatomyositis.

PATIENT GROUP AND

METHODS

The authors examined 43 patients with systemic connective tissue diseases: 20 patients with SLE, 7 patients with Sjögren's syndrome, 7 patients with systemic sclerosis and 9 patients with dermatomyositis. The mean age of the patients was 39.87 years. The control group consisted of 30 volunteers with a mean age of 35.17 years.

OUTCOME: Prolactin level in the patients with systemic connective tissue diseases was 14.629 ng/ml, which is more than in the control group. A statistically significant increase in prolactin level was recorded 20 minutes after i.v. stimulation as compared with the control group (30.982 ng/ml). This statistically significant difference was still present 60 minutes after the TRH administration, with 16.43 ng/ml in the control group, and 36.890 ng/ml in the systemic connective tissue disorder patient group. The differences between prolactin levels for the different systemic connective tissue diseases were not statistically significant. A positive correlation in the patient group was found between the stimulated prolactin values and the FW value. On the whole, however, there was no clear correlation found between laboratory activity and prolactin levels.

CONCLUSION

The authors found out that post-stimulation prolactin levels were statistically significantly higher in patients with systemic connective tissue disease as compared with the control group. Correlation analyses did not show a clear link between inflammatory activity and prolactin levels, and therefore the authors assume that medium increased values of prolactin are rather a risk factor for the disease than an inflammation marker in patients with a systemic connective tissue disease.