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Relatives of patients with SLE have higher risk for autoimmune disease
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First-degree family members of patients with systemic lupus erythematosus were found to be at higher risk for developing it or other autoimmune diseases, according to recently published study findings.
In a population-based study of 23,658,577 individuals registered in the Taiwan National Health Insurance Research Database in 2010, researchers identified 4,229,301 families, 18,283 patients with systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE), 21,009,551 parent-child relationships, 17,168,340 full sibling pairs and 342,066 twin pairs.
In the general population in 2010, 45,718 had at least one first-degree relative with SLE. Additionally, 20,343 had an affected parent, 12,435 had offspring with SLE, 13,115 had a sibling with SLE and 101 twins had a twin affected with SLE. The prevalence of individuals with affected family members was 1.3%.
Relative risk (RR) for SLE in the presence of an affected first-degree relative was 16.92, and trends that did not reach significance were seen with sex, as men with a male relative with SLE trended toward a higher risk for SLE, according to the researchers.
The researchers found the tetrachoric correlation was 0.59 for twins, 0.35 for siblings, 0.27 for parents, 0.25 for offspring and 0.07 for spouses. Additionally, a threshold variability model showed an accountability for phenotypic variance of SLE of 43.9% for genetic factors, 28.5% for shared environmental influences and 30.3% for non-shared environmental influences.
The RR for an individual with a first-degree relative with SLE to have an autoimmune disease other than SLE was 5.87 for Sjögren’s syndrome, 5.40 for systemic sclerosis, 2.95 for myasthenia gravis, 2.77 for idiopathic inflammatory myositis, 2.66 for rheumatoid arthritis, 1.68 for type 1 diabetes, 1.39 for irritable bowel disease and 0.86 for vasculitis, according to the researchers. – by Shirley Pulawski
Disclosure: The researchers report no relevant financial disclosures.
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