Clinical characteristics and follow-up of thrombosis in pediatric patients with systemic lupus erythematosus / 中华风湿病学杂志

ABSTRACT

Objective:To investigate the clinical characteristics and follow-up of thrombosis of pediatric patients with systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE).Methods:In this retrospective study, inpatients who were diagnosed in Beijing Children's Hospital with SLE complicated with arterial or venous thrombosis from January 2006 to December 2019 were collected, the clinical characteristics and outcomes were analyzed. Statistical product and Service solutions (SPSS) 25.0 was used for statistical analysis. T test or χ2 test (counting data) was used to compare the differences between groups, and Kaplan-Meier survival curve was used to analyze the time of thrombus endpoint events in lupus children. Results:A total of 1 395 newly diagnosed SLE patients were admitted. Twenty-seven cases were diagnosed with thrombosis, accounting for 1.9% of all the lupus patients. The median course from diagnosis to thrombosis was 20 days (49 days before diagnosis to 1 year after dia-gnosis). Among the 27 patients, 22(81%) cases had renal involvement. The mean SLE disease activity index (SLEDAI) score was (14±6) and (11±4) at the diagnosis of lupus and at onset of thrombosis, respectively ( t=2.547, P=0.017). 30% (8/27) of the patients had no apparent clinical manifestations of thrombosis. The patients received standard anticoagulant therapy after the diagnosis of thrombosis. During follow-up, 6 patients stopped taking medications due to the severity of the primary disease. Twenty-one patients were followed up regularly for 1-3 years. Thrombosis disappeared in 12 cases (44%), thrombolysis time ranged from 16 days to 1 year. Thrombosis were getting smaller in 9 cases (33%). And the disease was stable during follow up. Conclusion:Thrombosis is not rare in pediatric patients with systemic lupus erythematosus patients. Some patients do not have apparent clinical manifestations related to thrombus. Pediatricians should be alert to patients with renal involvement need to be more vigilant for thrombosis. Early detection and active treatment are the keys to improve the prognosis of thrombosis in pediatric SLE patients.