POLYAUTOIMMUNITY IS PRESENT IN A THIRD OF LUPUS PATIENTS IN COLOMBIA - ITS ASSOCIATED FACTORS.
- Pedro Santos-Moreno (Colombia)
Abstract
Background and Aims
Polyautoimmunity (PolyA) is defined as the presence of more than one autoimmune disease (AD) in a single patient and Systemic Lupus Erythematosus (SLE) is one of the most frequently involved AD. The aim of this study was to describe an estimated prevalence of PolyA in a Colombian-single center Systemic Lupus Erythematosus cohort and to analyze the presumable associated factors for PolyA.
Methods
This was a cross sectional study. All patients with SLE at our specialized rheumatology center from January 2015 to December 2020 were identified. All consecutive patients fulfilling SLICC/2012 criteria were analyzed. Data recorded included demographics, SLE and PolyA characteristics, laboratory, and treatments. Biostatistical methods included bivariate and multivariate analyses (binary logistic regression) to identify the factors associated with PolyA (p-value <0.05, SPSS V20).
Results
A total of 480 fulfilled SLICC/2012 criteria (422 females, mean age 47.7±15.3 years, mean duration of disease 11.24±8.9 years). There were 161/463 (33.5%) patients with PolyA of which 16.8% had 2 or more AD (i.e., Multiple Autoimmune Syndrome). The most frequent PolyA were antiphospholipid syndrome (47.8%), Sjögren’s syndrome (30.4%) and Systemic sclerosis (10.6%). PolyA patients were older, had higher age at onset, longer duration of disease (bivariate analysis) and less renal compromise (multivariate analysis). There were additional associated factors identified through the bivariate and multivariate models (Figure-table).
Conclusions
Near a third of SLE patients had PolyA. This was significantly associated with venous thrombosis, sicca symptoms and APS antibodies. An inverse association with lupus nephritis was found. This could encourage additional research evaluating PolyA associations in different populations.