The present study was done to measure serum and salivary testosterone
in premenopausal female patients with systemic lupus erythematosus
(SLE) to evaluate androgen metabolism in these patients. This study
included 28 SLE patients. their ages ranged between 21-42 years with a
mean value of 29 + 5.1 years and their disease duration was ranged between
1 - 10 years with a mean value of 5.5±1.5 years. SLE patients were
divided into two groups treated and untreated each included 14 patients.
Patients in the treated group were receiving prednisone in a dose ranged
between 10 and 25 mg/day and patients in untreated group were not received
corticosteroid. Fifteen (15) healthy subjects were chosen as control
group. their ages ranged between 23-45 years with a mean value of 31.1
+ 6.4 years. Total and free testosterone were measured in serum and saliva
of the patients and controls by radioirnmumoassay. There was signif
icant decrease in total and free testosterone in serum and saliva of SLE
patients as compared with control group. There was also signyicant decrease
in total and free testosterone in serum and saliva of treated patients
compared with control group. but there were non-significant changes
in total and free testosterone in serum and saliva of patients not
received corticosteroid compared with control group. There was highly
positive significant correlation between total and free salivary testosterone
with total and free serum testosterone in SLE patients. 79.2% of
testosterone in human saliva was in free form. So we concluded that
salivary testosterone represents the circulating free serum testoste-rone and measurement of testosterone in saliva may provide a simple
and reliable way of determining testosterone levels in SLE patients. |
