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Existing damage, older age, index scores impact SLE organ damage progression, study finds
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Many factors, such as existing organ damage, high damage index scores and older age, were associated with progression of organ damage in patients with systemic lupus erythematosus, according to recently published research.
Alexandra Legge, MD, from the Department of Medicine at Nova Scotia Health Authority, Dalhousie University, and colleagues analyzed the effect of disease-related, treatment-related and demographic factors on prognosis for 273 patients with systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE) in a longitudinal database, according to the abstract. The patients participated in annual assessments using the Systemic Lupus International Collaborating Clinics/ACR Damage Index (SDI) and the Medical Outcomes Study version of the SF-36, and the researchers used linear mixed-effects modeling to measure SDI and SF-36 score changes on health-related quality of life (HRQoL).
Alexandra Legge
They found 126 patients (46.2%) had an increase in SDI score at 7.3-year follow-up, with patients who had existing damage at baseline showing earlier organ damage progression (hazard ratio = 2.09), according to the abstract. SDI score changes were associated with lower SF-36 scores in early follow-up and were comparable to changes in patients without organ damage progression at later follow-up. Early SDI increase was associated with factors, such as older age, cigarette smoking, immunosuppressive drugs, higher mean serum C-reactive protein levels and an ACR classification criteria of eight or higher.
“The negative effect of organ damage progression on HRQoL in patients with SLE underlines the need to address modifiable risk factors and develop effective prevention and treatment strategies to reduce the risk of organ damage over time,” Legge and colleagues wrote in their study. – by Jeff Craven
Disclosure: Healio.com was unable to determine whether the authors had any relevant financial disclosures.
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