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Background: the admission and death causes of SLE patients might have changed over the last years. Methods: Analysis of the Spanish National Hospital Discharge database. All individuals admitted with SLE, according to ICD-9, were selected. The following five admission categories were considered: SLE, cardiovascular disease (CVD), neoplasm, infection, and venous-thromboembolic disease (VTED), along four periods of time (1997–2000, 2001–2005, 2006–2010, and 2011–2015). Results: The admissions (99,859) from 43.432 patients with SLE were included. The absolute number of admissions increased from 15,807 in 1997–2000 to 31,977 in 2011–2015. SLE decreased as a cause of admission (from 47.1% to 20.8%, p < 0.001), while other categories increased over the time, as follows: 5% to 8.6% for CVD, 8.2% to 13% for infection, and 1.4% to 5.5% for neoplasm (p < 0.001 for all). The admission mortality rate rose from 2.22% to 3.06% (p < 0.001) and the causes of death evolved in parallel with the admission categories. A significant trend to older age was observed over time in the overall population and deceased patients (p < 0.001). Conclusions: Better control of SLE over the past two decades has led to a decrease in early admissions, and disease chronification. As a counterpart, CVD, infections, and neoplasm have become the main causes of admissions and mortality.

Background. Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) has a high mortality in certain group of patients. We analysed the impact of baseline immunosuppression in COVID-19 mortality and the role of severe lymphopenia in immunocompromised subjects. Methods. We analysed all patients admitted with COVID-19 in a tertiary hospital in Madrid between March 1st and April 30th 2020. Epidemiological and clinical data, including severe lymphopenia (<500 lymphocytes/mm3) during admission, were analysed and compared based on their baseline immunosuppression condition. Results. A total of 1594 patients with COVID-19 pneumonia were hospitalised during the study period. 166 (10.4%) were immunosuppressed. Immunocompromised patients were younger (64 vs. 67 years, p = 0.02) but presented higher rates of hypertension, diabetes, heart, neurological, lung, kidney and liver disease (p < 0.05). They showed more severe lymphopenia (53% vs 24.1%, p < 0.001), lower SapO2/FiO2 ratios (251 vs 276, p = 0.02) during admission and higher mortality rates (27.1% vs 13.5%, p < 0.001). After adjustment, immunosuppression remained as an independent factor related to mortality (Odds Ratio (OR): 2.24, p < 0.001). In the immunosuppressed group, age (OR = 1.06, p = 0.01), acute respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS) (OR = 12.27, p = 0.017) and severe lymphopenia (OR = 3.48, p = 0.04) were the factors related to high mortality rate. Conclusion. Immunosuppression is an independent mortality risk factor in COVID-19. Severe lymphopenia should be promptly identified in these patients.

We aimed to explore the role of interleukin (IL)-6, interferon-gamma (IFNγ), IL-10, and tumor necrosis factor (TNF) as predictors of systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE) clinical and serological activity, and their correlation with the treatment received. We performed a retrospective analysis of 77 patients with SLE according to the 2012 Systemic Lupus International Collaborative Clinics (SLICC) criteria. The outcomes were serological activity (SA), active disease (AD), complete remission (CR), the low-disease activity state (LDAS), and immunosuppressive treatment.

ObjectiveInfections are a common complication of SLE. Our objective was to evaluate their causes and impact on the survival of patients with SLE.MethodsAnalysis of the admissions and death causes in patients diagnosed with SLE from the Spanish Hospital Discharge Database and the infection-related deaths of the Spanish population from the National Statistical Institute, between 2016 and 2018.Only infections recorded as the main diagnosis were analysed (severe or clinically relevant infection).ResultsAmong 18 430 admissions in patients with SLE, disease activity was the cause of admission in 19% of all patients and infection in 15%. However, infection was the main cause of death (25%) while SLE activity was responsible for only 6% of deaths (p<0.001). Severe infection exceeded SLE as a cause of death for patients dying at ages between 40–59 (23% vs 4%, p<0.001), 60–79 (26% vs 6%, p<0.001) and older than 80 years (25% vs 6%, p<0.001). Infection was the cause of death in 8% of the Spanish population, a significantly lower rate when compared with patients with SLE (p<0.001). Compared with the general population, infections were the highest relative cause of death in patients with SLE, particularly at younger ages: 40% vs 3% for those below 20 years old (p<0.01), 33% vs 4% between 20 and 39 (p<0.001), 23% vs 5% between 40 and 59 (p<0.001), 26% vs 5% between 60 and 79 (p<0.001) and 25% vs 9% for those older than 80 years (p<0.001).ConclusionOur nationwide study confirms that infections are the leading cause of death in SLE in Spain, with the highest proportion occurring in young patients with lupus compared with the general population of the same age range.