Anti-ribosomal P antibodies in systemic lupus erythematosus: a case-control study correlating hepatic and renal disease.

We report a case-control study of the occurrence of liver and kidney disease in 20 systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE) patients with anti-ribosomal P antibodies and 20 age-, sex-, and race-matched (control group) SLE patients without anti-P antibodies. In the group with anti-P antibodies, 7 patients were found to have had liver disease, compared with only 1 in the control group (P = 0.03), and 14 anti-P (+) patients have had kidney disease, compared with 4 in the control group (P = 0.01). A major serological difference between the groups was an increased prevalence of anti-dsDNA in the anti-P positive group (12/20) vs the control group (4/20), P = 0.02. These statistically significant differences suggest that antibodies to ribosomal P identify a subset of SLE patients at higher risk for liver and kidney involvement, in addition to the previously recognized risk for neuropsychiatric disease.