Furthermore, the mean level IL-18 in patients with active SLE was significantly higher than patients with chronic SLE (622.77 ± 716.54 versus 109.17 ± 104.63 pg/ml, P = 0.001), such a results have been shown in the studies by Wong et al (20,21,24) and Aringer et al (25). The gene discussed is IL18; the disease is systemic lupus erythematosus.