Protein-losing enteropathy exacerbated with the appearance of symptoms of systemic lupus erythematosus

Abstract

A 38-year-old woman visited our hospital with edema on her face and conjunctivae. The underlying disease was not clarified, and she did not visit the hospital afterwards. She suffered from diarrhea, polyarthralgia, Raynaud's phenomenon, malar rash and hair loss in the subsequent two years, and was hospitalized because of hypoproteinemia. Her urine, liver and heart test results did not account for her hypoproteinemia. She was diagnosed as having protein-losing enteropathy (PLE) associated with SLE based on the 99mtechnetium-labeled human serum albumin scintigraphy findings, clinical findings and laboratory results of antinuclear and anti-Sm antibodies. This case report demonstrates a strong association between PLE and SLE because PLE was aggravated along with the appearance of SLE symptoms and PLE subsided with prednisolone treatment along with improvement of SLE.