June 03, 2019
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Racial, ethnic minorities at greater risk for severe lupus manifestations

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Black, Asian, Pacific islander and Hispanic patients with systemic lupus erythematosus are at a greater risk for developing more renal, neurologic and hematologic manifestations compared with white patients, and also demonstrate lupus nephritis, thrombocytopenia and antiphospholipid syndrome sooner, according to data published in Arthritis Care & Research.

“There are currently few studies exploring racial/ethnic differences in the clinical presentation of SLE or in the development of severe disease manifestations subsequent to SLE diagnosis,” Ernest Maningding, MD, of the University of California, San Francisco, and colleagues wrote. “Previous epidemiologic studies suggest that in comparison to whites, blacks have a more severe presentation of symptoms at the time of diagnosis of SLE and a worse overall prognosis. However, no studies to date have analyzed racial/ethnic differences in manifestations of SLE across the four major racial/ethnic populations in the U.S., including among [Asians/Pacific islanders] and Hispanics.”

To evaluate the differences in SLE manifestations among racial and ethnic minorities, Maningding and colleagues reviewed data from the California Lupus Surveillance Project (CLSP), one of four lupus registries funded by the CDC in the United States. Created through a partnership between the California Department of Public Health and the University of California, San Francisco, the CLSP is a population-based registry of patients with SLE living in San Francisco from 2007 to 2009, with a special focus on Asian, Pacific islander and Hispanic residents.

 
Black, Asian, Pacific islander and Hispanic patients with SLE are at a greater risk for developing more renal, neurologic and hematologic manifestations compared with white patients, and also demonstrate lupus nephritis, thrombocytopenia and antiphospholipid syndrome sooner, according to data.
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For their study, the researchers identified 724 patients with SLE for inclusion. Among these patients, 26.2% were white, 18.8% were black, 36.9% were Asian or Pacific islander and 15.5% identified as Hispanic. Of those who identified as Asian or Pacific islander, 49.4% were Chinese, 1.54% were Filipino and 6.7% were Vietnamese.

In addition, 50.9% included Hispanics did not specify any ethnic origin, while 31.3% described themselves as South or Central American and 13.4% were Mexican.

Maningding and colleagues calculated prevalence ratios (PR) for SLE manifestations using Poisson regression models stratified by race/ethnicity and adjusted for sex, age at diagnosis and disease duration. In addition, they analyzed severe manifestation onset following diagnosis using KaplanMeier methods to examine timetoevent. Cox proportional hazards regressions were used to estimate hazard ratios.

According to the researchers, black (PR = 1.74; 95% CI, 1.4-2.16), Asian and Pacific islander (PR = 1.68; 95% CI, 1.38-2.05) and Hispanic (PR = 1.35; 95% CI, 1.05-1.74) patients with SLE demonstrated an increased prevalence of renal manifestations, compared with whites. In addition, black patients had increased prevalence of neurologic manifestations (PR = 1.49; 95% CI, 1.12-1.98), while blacks (PR = 1.09; 95% CI, 1.04-1.15) and Asians and Pacific islanders (PR = 1.07; 95% CI, 1.01-1.13) demonstrated an increased prevalence of hematologic manifestations.

Blacks, Asians, Pacific islanders and Hispanics also demonstrated a higher risk for lupus nephritis and thrombocytopenia, compared with whites. Asian and Pacific islander (HR = 2.5; 95% CI, 1.4-4.4) and Hispanic (HR = 2.6; 95% CI, 1.3-5.1) patients had a higher risk for antiphospholipid syndrome.

“This study found important differences in the characteristics and progression of SLE between racial/ethnic minority groups and whites,” Maningding and colleagues wrote. “It is the first study to use rigorous epidemiologic methods to compare SLE manifestations across four racial/ethnic groups, including [Asians/Pacific islanders] and Hispanics, two understudied populations.”

“Data collected in this study support the importance of increased awareness of SLE and its accelerated progression by clinicians for these racial/ethnic groups,” they added. “These data also advocate for greater resource allocation on early diagnosis and treatment in these populations.” – by Jason Laday

Disclosures : The researchers report funding from the CDC and NIH.