Clinical manifestations and prognosis of SLE patients with positive anti-cardiolipin antibodies / 医学研究生学报

Objectives Anticardiolipin antibody (aCL) is an important component of antiphospholipid antibody (aPL) and a marker antibody of antiphospholipid syndrome (aPS). APL is positive in 20% to 40% of patients with systemic lupus erythematosus(SLE). This article investigated the clinical features and prognosis of SLE patients with aCL. Methods From January 1999 to December 2009, 495 cases of SLE patients detected aCL who were hospitalized for the first time in 26 hospitals in Jiangsu Province including Nanjing Drum Tower Hospital were divided into aCL-positive group and aCL-negative group according to the test results. The patients were followed up in survival status, and the demographic characteristics, affected organs, laboratory tests, treatment drugs, and prognosis were compared between two groups. Results 146 of the SLE patients in this group were positive for aCL. The proportion of women in aCL- positive group (96.6%) was significantly higher than that in aCL-negative group (90.8%), and the difference was statistically significant (P<0.05). The proportion of anemia (74.7% vs 61.3%), decreased C3(81.5% vs 71.1%), positive antinuclear antibody(97.2% vs 92.4%), and positive anti-dsDNA antibody (61.9% vs 49.6%) in aCL-positive group were significantly higher than those of aCL-negative group, and the difference was statistically significant (P<0.05). The aCL-positive group received a higher proportion of cyclophosphamide immunosuppressive therapy (39.5% vs 50.7%, P<0.05). At the end of follow-up, the mortality rate of aCL-positive group was 13.7%, and the mortality rate of aCL-negative group was 14.9% and there was no significant difference in mortality (P>0.05). Kaplan-Meier survival analysis showed that the 1-year, 5-year, and 10-year survival rates of aCL-positive group were 94.5%, 89.0%, and 82.9%, respectively, and there was no significant difference compared with aCL-negative group(P=0.776). The main causes of death in aCL-positive group were lupus encephalopathy (6 cases, 30.0%), renal failure (5 cases, 25.0%), heart failure (4 cases, 20.0%) and infection (3 cases, 15%). The main causes of death in aCL-negative group were infection (21 cases, 40.4%), lupus encephalopathy (11 cases, 21.2%) and heart failure (5 cases, 9.6%) and renal failure (4 cases, 7.7%). Conclusion SLE patients with aCL represent a high propotion in anemia, decreased C3, positive antinuclear antibody, positive anti-dsDNA antibody. There was no significant difference in disease activity and significant organ involvement between two groups. More SLE patients with aCL were treated with cyclophosphamide, and there was no significant difference in survival status between SLE patients with and without aCL during long-term follow-up.

Death-related factors of systemic lupus erythematosus patients associated with the course of disease in Chinese populations: multicenter and retrospective study of 1,958 inpatients.

Despite the improved survival rate among systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE) patients, there are many factors associated with the mortality of SLE. In the current study, death-related factors of patients associated with course of disease were surveyed. Retrospective study was used. Mortalities among these three groups (group A, B and C, the course of disease was ≤ 5 years, 5-10 years and > 10 years, respectively) were calculated and compared. Various factors related to mortality were analyzed. Male SLE patients died relatively more than female patients. The total mortality was 8.5 %. The mortalities were significant difference in group A, B and C which were 9.4, 4.8 and 8.9 %, respectively. The mortalities of group A and group C were significantly higher than that of group B, but there was no significant difference between mortalities of group A and group C. The most common death-related factor was infection, followed by involved disorders in renal, brain, multisystem, heart, etc. The mortalities resulted from neuropsychiatric systemic lupus erythematosus (NPSLE), pulmonary infection, involved digestive system and hematological system were significantly different between three groups. There was no difference between mortalities of group A and group C associated with pulmonary infection and NPSLE. Patients in group C died more than in group A from involved renal, heart, multisystem, etc, while group A had more patients than group C who died of pulmonary infection, involved hematological system. In conclusion, Male SLE patients have worse outcome than female patients. Infection and active SLE are not only contributors to the death of early stage patients, but also to that of later stage patients.

Clinical features and correlation research of fever in systemic lupus erythematosus patients / 中华风湿病学杂志

ObjectiveTo investigate the clinical features of systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE) patients with fever and find out the related factors.MethodsData was collected by the same methods in the past ten years in fifteen hospitals in Jiangsu province and then the data wereretrospectively analyzed.The potentially possible risk factors of fever in SLE were selected and then analyzed by chi-square test,Wilcoxon rank sum test and Logistic regression analysis.ResultsAll 1762 patients were investigated.Seven hundred and twenty-nine had active fever.Age at hospitalization,initially treated patients,photosensitivity,serositis,nervous system involvement,generalized lymphadenopathy/hepatosplenomegaly,white blood cell count (WBC),haemoglobin (HB),erythrocyte sedimentation rate (ESR),C-reaction protein (CRP),alanine aminotransferase(ALT),albumin(ALB),serum creatinine (Scr),complement C3,anti-dsDNA antibodies positive rate,anti-Sm antibodies positive rate,SLEDAI score and past therapies were factors associatedwith SLE fever.Logistic regression analysis showed that abnormal WBC count (OR=1.396,95％CI 1.114-1.711,P=0.004),CRP(OR=1.005,95％CI 1.002-1.009,P=0.002),ALT(OR=1.003,95％CI 1.001-1.005,P=0.005),Scr (OR=0.997,95％CI0.995-0.999,P=0.007),HB (OR=0.986,95％CI 0.981-0.992,P=0.000),age (OR =0.984,95％ CI 0.974-0.993,P=0.001 ) and past usage of cyclophosphamide (CTX) (OR =0.557,95％CI 0.382-0.813,P=0.002) were correlated with SLE fever.ConclusionFever is one of the most common clinical manifestations of SLE patients.Leucopenia,elevated CRP levels,liver function abnormalities,anemia,younger age are risk factors for SLE fever,while renal impairment and past usage of CTX are protective factors.