Coronary Electron Beam Computed Tomography in 13 Patients With Systemic Lupus Erythematosus and Two or More Cardiovascular Risk Factors

Abstract

Cardiovascular and cerebrovascular events, the third leading cause of death in patients with systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE), are disproportionately common by age and gender. Risk factors for atherosclerotic cardiovascular disease (ASCVD) cannot reliably predict subsets of patients at risk for events. Coronary electron beam computed tomography (EBCT), a noninvasive imaging technique that quantifies ASCVD by measuring calcium deposition in the walls of coronary arteries, has been demonstrated to be a marker of ASCVD in traditional populations. A pilot group of 13 SLE patients (ages, 33-48 years) with two or more traditional risk factors for cardiovascular disease were studied by EBCT. Five of these SLE patients had calcification scores in the 70th percentile or higher, as compared with age-matched women without known coronary artery disease, and three had scores in the 90th percentile. Four of these five patients had antiphospholipid antibodies currently or in the past. These data suggest that EBCT may be able to detect premature ASCVD in SLE patients and may be a useful noninvasive tool as more attention is directed to ASCVD as a major complication of SLE.