The clinical manifestations and survival of systemic lupus erythematosus patients in Turkey: report from two centers

Abstract

Data from two centers in Northwestern Turkey show that the mortality rate for SLE is similar to the rate in Western countries.

Survival Analysis of Turkish Patients With Systemic Lupus Erythematosus: Older Age at Diagnosis Affects Mortality

“…Mortality incidence rate was 1.05/100 patient-years (95% confidence interval 0.67-1.65). Of the deceased patients, 18 (94.7%) were females, median age of disease onset was 41 years (range 26-54), median age of death was 43 years (range 33-60), and median duration of disease until death was four years (range [1][2][3][4][5]. The age at the time of diagnosis was significantly higher in deceased patients when compared to that of alive patients (p=0.008).…”

“…In the Chinese study by Wang et al, 10 renal involvement accompanied by lupus encephalopathy held fourth place in their list of primary causes of death. Pamuk et al 4 have stated most common causes of death as ischemic cardiac disease, chronic renal failure, and sepsis. In our patients, most frequent causes of death were infections, and ischemic cardiovascular and cerebrovascular diseases.…”

“…5 In a review of studies conducted in USA and Europe, five-year survival ranged from 78 to 99.5%, 10-year survival ranged from 74 to 93.7% while 15-year survival was found to vary in a range of 60 to 91.6%. 2 The study carried out by Pamuk et al, 4 the only study on mortality of SLE in Turkey, states 5-, 10-, and 15-year survivals as 96%, 92%, and 88.8%, respectively. In a similar manner to the study from Turkey and other studies in the literature, overall five-year, 10-year, and 15-year survivals of patients in our cohort were 91.9%, 90%, and 88.2%, respectively.…”

“…5,6 To our knowledge, there is only one Turkish study on survival in SLE in which age at diagnosis was not determined as an effective factor on mortality. 4 In this study, we aimed to determine the rate, causes, and risk factors of mortality in Turkish SLE patients and whether age at diagnosis has an effect on mortality or not.…”

“…2 In addition to the disease-related factors which may influence the mortality, medications used during the treatment have also been investigated for their effects on mortality. [3][4][5] Among the patients who are followed-up due to SLE, most predominant causes of death at the early period are infection and serious organ involvement of SLE. Existence of renal involvement, particularly, is one of the findings leading to poor prognosis.…”