[Protein-losing enteropathy and cerebral infarction associated with systemic lupus erythematosus]

A 26-year old woman, who was diagnosed as having systemic lupus erythematosus at the age of 23 year old, presented diarrhea and headache. She showed severe hypoproteinemia (serum total protein 3.7 g/dl, serum albumin 1.4 g/dl) and hyperlipidemia. She revealed to have protein-losing enteropathy with the result of alpha-1-antitrypsin clearance test using stool. Increase of prednisolone improved the loss of albumin into the bowel and abnormal laboratory findings. She also showed watershed infarction in the area of middle cerebral artery and posterior cerebral artery. Protein-losing enteropathy is a rare complication of SLE, only 18 cases are available on literature. No case is found to have cerebral infarction in patients with protein-losing enteropathy associated with SLE. It is known that blood levels of anticoagulation factors decrease in protein-losing enteropathy due to the leakage of plasma protein into intestinal lumen. Serum antithrombin III was decreased in this case. Hyperlipidemia found in this case seems to be caused by same mechanism in nephrotic syndrome. Lupus anticoagulant was also positive in this patient. These factors seems to be related to the occurrence of cerebral infarction. This case suggests the possibility of cerebral infarction in patients with protein-losing enteropathy in SLE.