Some previous reports demonstrated the importance of the balance between IL-18 and IL-18BP in inflammatory bowel disease [31], in rheumatoid arthritis [32], and in systemic lupus erythematosus [33] which may help to understand our finding that plasma level IL-18 correlated well with IL-18BP level in eczema. The gene discussed is IL18BP; the disease is systemic lupus erythematosus.