Evaluation of damage index and it’s association to risk factors in systemic lupus erythematosus patients

Abstract

• BACKGROUND: To determine the frequency of damage index in patients with systemic lupus erythematosus(SLE) and the association between damage index and disease severity, flare up numbers, disease duration and anti-phospholipid antibodies.
• METHODS: Eighty SLE patients were included. The damage was measured using the SLICC (Systemic Lupus International Collaborating Clinics)/ACR damage index (SDI). The disease flare was defined by the increase in the Systemic Lupus Erythematosus Disease Activity Index 2000 (SLEDAI-2K). The disease severity surrogates were the presence of class III/IV glomerulonephritis, the presence of severe central nervous system (CNS) involvement and cyclophosphamide administration.Analysis was performed by independent student-t and chi square tests in SPSS₁₆ software was used for the analysis.
• RESULTS: There were significant association between the damage accrual and the disease severity, flare up and anti-phospholipid antibodies (p = 0.001, p = 0.004, p = 0.05 respectively).
• CONCLUSIONS: The disease severity, frequency of flares and positive anti-phospholipid antibodies are associated with damage accrual.
• KEYWORDS: Systemic lupus erythematosus, damage index, anti-phospholipid antibody.