Abstract:
AIM To analyze the clinical characteristics and prognosis of systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE) patients with cardiovascular involvement.
METHODS A total of 174 SLE patients hospitalized in the Department of Rheumatology and Immunology of the Second Affiliated Hospital of Air Force Medical University from January 2022 to November 2023 were included in this study. According to whether they were complicated with cardiovascular damage, they were divided into two groups, including 90 patients with cardiovascular damage and 84 patients without cardiovascular damage. The clinical data of the patients were collected and analyzed.
RESULTS Compared with SLE patients without cardiovascular damage, SLE patients with cardiovascular damage have higher SLEDAI scores (P<0.05), older age (P<0.01), higher incidence of anti ds DNA antibodies (P<0.01) and anti ds DNA titers>32 (P<0.05), and higher incidence of renal involvement (P<0.01); The levels of BUN/Cr (P<0.01), FAR (P<0.01), CAR (P<0.05), BAR (P<0.01), BUN (P<0.01), Cr (P<0.01), CysC (P<0.01), CRP (P<0.05), and ESR (P<0.01) increased, while PLT (P<0.05), LYM (P<0.05), RBC (P<0.01), HGB (P<0.01), and ALB (P<0.01) decreased; Spearman was used for correlation analysis, and age (P<0.01), FAR (P<0.01), CAR (P<0.01), CysC (P<0.01), and ESR (P<0.01) were positively correlated with CRP in SLE patients with cardiovascular damage. HGB (P<0.05), ALB (P<0.05), and LCR (P<0.01) were negatively correlated with CRP. FAR, CAR, CysC, and CRP were positively correlated with ESR in SLE patients with cardiovascular damage (all P<0.01), while RBC, HGB, ALB, and LCR were negatively correlated with ESR (all P<0.01); Age (P<0.05), PLT (P<0.05), RBC (P<0.01), HGB (P<0.01), and ALB (P<0.01) are negatively correlated with SLEDAI, while BUN/Cr (P<0.05), BAR (P<0.01), BUN (P<0.01), Cr (P<0.01), and Cys C (P<0.01) are positively correlated with SLEDAI (P<0.05).
CONCLUSIONS SLE patients with cardiovascular involvement tend to be older in age and have higher positive rates of anti-ds-DNA antibody and anticardiolipin antibody. They are more likely to be associated with renal involvement and have higher levels of systemic inflammation, higher disease activity and poorer clinical prognosis.