Predictors of cardiac involvement in systemic lupus erythematosus patients

Abstract

Cardiac involvement is the first cause of mortality in systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE). Echocardiography can be used as a non-invasive tool for the assessment of this involvement. To investigate the cardiac involvement in patients diagnosed with SLE assessed by echocardiography and to study relationship between several factors and cardiac manifestation. An echocardiographic study of 76 patients with diagnosis of SLE between 2005 and 2017. We also collected epidemiological characteristic of population, data related to lupus disease. Patients were assigned into cardiac abnormalities group (40 patients) and non-cardiac abnormalities group (30 patients) and compared to study relations between several factors and cardiac manifestation. Cardiac involvement was found in echocardiography in 52% of patients (40 patients). Echocardiographic findings showed 12 cases (38%) of pericardial effusion. Valvular abnormalities were observed in 19 cases (48%), Myocardium was involved in 5 cases (12.5%). High arterial pulmonary hypertension was reported in 4 cases (10%). Men were more vulnerable to cardiac involvement in lupus, there was significant relationship between disease duration and cardiac abnormalities ( P : 0.04), age was not associated significantly to echocardiographic abnormalities, positive antiphospholipid antibodies (aPL+) was observed in higher frequency in cardiac involvement group with P < 0.01 and especially in valvular anomalies. Echocardiography can be helpful tool for early detection of the cardiac involvement in SLE. Men gender, longer disease duration and a PL+ are to be associated to these cardiac abnormalities.