Objective: To determine the frequency and predictors of pulmonary hypertension in patients with Systemic Lupus Erythematosus in a Pakistani population, presenting at a tertiary care hospital Methods: This cross-sectional study was conducted at the Department of Rheumatology, Shiekh Zayed Hospital, Lahore from March to June 2018. A total of 97 patients, who fulfilled the Systemic Lupus Erythematosus (SLE) criteria of American College of Rheumatology (ACR) 1992 were enrolled. Pulmonary Arterial Hypertension (PAH) was measured by calculating pulmonary arterial systolic pressure through echocardiography by a single consultant cardiologist. Disease characteristics and demography was collected in a self-administered proforma. PAH was defined as mean pulmonary arterial pressure of 25mmHg or above by calculating with a formula. SPSS version 20 was used for analysis of data. Results: Out of 97 patients, 89.7% (n=87) were females and 10.3% (n=10) were males, with mean age of 31.29±8.824 years. The mean disease duration was 24.21±30.46 months. PAH was found in 23.3% (n=23) patients, including 19 females and 4 males. On further analysis of data, Raynaud phenomenon, rheumatoid factor and nephritis were assessed as predictors of PAH and all of these showed statistical significance for presence of PAH as per Chi-square test (p<0.05). Conclusion: In this study, 23.3% SLE patients showed evidence of PAH and positive statistical significance was found between predictors like Raynaud phenomenon, rheumatoid factor, nephritis and presence of PAH. So it is imperative to detect PAH early and start prompt treatment to achieve better quality of life. How to cite this:Asif S, Rasheed A, Mahmud TH, Asghar A. Frequency and predictors of pulmonary hypertension in patients with Systemic Lupus Erythematosus. Pak J Med Sci. 2019;35(1):86-89. doi: https://doi.org/10.12669/pjms.35.1.405 This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
The prevalence, immunoglobulin class, and IgG-subclass of antireticulin antibody in the serum samples of 32 patients with systemic sclerosis were investigated by indirect immunofluorescence on unfixed rodent tissue.
Systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE) is an autoimmune disease that is frequently treated with high doses of corticosteroids and other immunosuppressive drugs. Thus patients with SLE are at increased risk for infections with several pathogens including Mycobacterium tuberculosis. There are no established guidelines available for treatment of tuberculosis in SLE patients with high disease activity due to lack of relevant studies and management based more on physician expertise. We report a case of a young SLE patient with high disease activity index (SLEDAI19) as evidenced by the presence of a vasculitic rash, non-healing ulcer on forearm and proteinuria of >1 g/d along with miliary tuberculosis. She was treated with intravenous methylprednisolone pulse up to 3 g and antituberculous therapy, but the result was a fatal outcome. This case report emphasizes the need for formal guidelines for co-management of active tuberculosis and SLE with high disease activity.
Background: Early diagnosis and effective treatment in systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE) has very crucial role. Anti dsDNA is very important diagnostic tool and activity marker in SLE. This study aimed to determine the association of anti dsDNA antibodies titer with non-renal manifestations of systemic lupus erythematosus and systemic lupus erythematosus disease activity index (SLEDAI). Patients and methods: It was a cross-sectional study and was carried out at Department of Rheumatology and Immunology, Tertiary Care Hospital, Lahore from Feb 2021 to May 2021. The study involved 69 male and female patients satisfying the systemic lupus international collaborating clinics (SLICC) classification criteria. Questions regarding different symptoms were asked and disease activity parameters were noted excluding renal parameters. Anti-dsDNA titers were measured from standard laboratory using immunofluorescence technique and were correlated with SLEDAI score. A written informed consent was obtained from every patient. Results: The mean age of the patients was 30.7±10.2 years while the mean duration of disease 1.94±2.65 years. We observed a female predominance among these patients with male to female ratio of 1:7.6. There were fifty-four (78.3%) patients with active disease. The mean anti-dsDNA levels were significantly higher in patients with active disease (315.73±481.68 vs. 78.46±113.64 IU/mL; p-value=0.003). There was a significantly strong positive correlation between anti-dsDNA levels and SLEDAI score (r=0.358; p-value=0.006). When compared, significant difference was observed in mean anti-dsDNA titers in patients with chronic cutaneous manifestations (p-value=0.040), lymphopenia (p-value= 0.012), pleurisy/pericarditis (p-value= 0.024) and leukopenia <3000/mm3 (p-value= 0.001). Conclusion: Anti-dsDNA antibodies titers are remarkably increased in patients with non-renal manifestations of systemic lupus erythematosus particularly with chronic cutaneous manifestations and leukopenia and positively correlate with disease activity status and SLEDAI score.
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