Fatigue in patients with systemic lupus erythematosus: lack of associations to serum cytokines, antiphospholipid antibodies, or other disease characteristics.

Abstract

Fatigue is a common phenomenon in patients with SLE. There is no association to disease activity or other markers of disease or inflammation. Fatigue is a complex phenomenon, and cytokine involvement in brain tissue not reflected by cytokine serum concentrations in this study cannot be excluded. Alternatively, psychosocial factors may well be the dominant predictor of fatigue in patients with SLE.