Search

Objective To assess the impact of different disease activity patterns—long quiescent (LQ), chronically active (CA) and relapsing-remitting (RR)—on health-related quality of life (HRQoL) in a cohort of patients with systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE).Methods A retrospective, monocentric analysis of prospectively collected data. Adult SLE outpatients were enrolled between 2017 and 2021.For each year of follow-up, three disease activity patterns were defined: LQ if at each visit clinical Safety of Estrogens in Lupus Erythematosus National Assessment-Systemic Lupus Activity Index (SELENA-SLEDAI)=0, Physician Global Assessment (PGA)=0; CA if at each visit clinical SELENA-SLEDAI >0, PGA >0; RR if patients presented active disease in at least one visit during the observation period, interspersed with periods of remission. These patterns were applied to the year and the 3 years before enrolment.At enrolment, each patient completed: Short Form 36 (SF-36), Lupus Impact Tracker, Functional Assessment of Chronic Illness Therapy (FACIT), Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale (HADS). The correlation between disease patterns and Patient-Reported Outcomes was analysed.Results 241 SLE patients were enrolled, of which 222 had complete clinical data for the 3-year period before enrolment. Both in the year and during the 3 years before enrolment, the most frequent disease pattern was the LQ (154/241 and 122/222 patients, respectively), followed by RR (53/241 and 92/222 patients, respectively) and CA (34/241 and 8/222 patients, respectively).At baseline, fibromyalgia, organ damage, age and daily glucocorticoid dose were associated with worse HRQoL.At the multivariable analysis, after adjusting for confounding factors, patients with LQ disease during the 3 years before enrolment presented a better physical HRQoL (SF-36 physical component summary, regression coefficient=3.2, 95% CI 0.51–5.89, p=0.02) and minor depressive symptoms (HADS-D, regression coefficient=−1.17, 95% CI −2.38 to 0.0.27, p=0.055), compared with patients with CA/RR disease.Conclusion A persistently quiescent disease may have a positive impact on patients’ physical HRQoL and on depressive symptoms. However, this condition appears insufficient to obtain a significant improvement in mental health, fatigue and disease burden among patients with SLE.

Objectives To analyse the response to immunosuppressants (IS) in extrarenal flares of SLE to determine the most appropriate timing during follow-up for a change in therapeutic strategy.Methods Observational cohort study including a total of 81 patients with SLE with extrarenal flares requiring a change in IS over the period 2015–2022. Baseline clinical variables were described, and follow-up data at 1, 3, 6 and 12 months time-points were collected.Results Among patients flaring that achieved lupus low disease activity state (LLDAS5) at 12 months of follow-up, we identified two subgroups (‘late responders’ and ‘early responders’), which showed no significant differences in demographic characteristics, baseline clinical data, cumulative dosage of glucocorticoids or type of IS. Cox model analysis revealed a significant association of a change in IS (p=0.019) and achieving LLDAS5. Contingency table analysis indicated a significant relationship (p=0.004) between IS change at 6 months and individuals achieving LLDAS5 and remission at 12 months.Conclusions Our findings suggest that clinical improvement of extrarenal flares typically occurs within 6 months of initiating IS. This timeframe could represent an appropriate timing to evaluate the response in a treat-to-target approach in SLE.

Introduction Data concerning SARS-CoV-2 in patients affected by SLE are contradicting.The aim of this study was to investigate disease-related differences in COVID-19 prognosis of patients affected by rheumatic diseases before vaccination; we tested the hypothesis that patients with SLE may have a different outcome compared with those with rheumatoid arthritis (RA) or spondyloarthritis (SPA).Methods We analysed data from the national CONTROL-19 Database with a retrospective, observational design, including rheumatic patients affected by COVID-19. The principal outcome measure was hospitalisation with death or mechanical ventilation. Differences between SLE, RA and SPA were analysed by univariable and multivariable logistic regression models.Results We included 103 patients with SLE (88.2% female, mean age 48.9 years, 50.4% active disease), 524 patients with RA (74.4% female, mean age 60.6 years, 59.7% active disease) and 486 patients with SPA (58.1% female, mean age 53.2 years, 58% active disease).Outcome prevalence was not different between patients with SLE and those with RA (SLE 24.5%, RA 25.6%), while patients with SPA showed a more favourable outcome compared with those with SLE (SPA 15.9%); data from the multivariable analysis confirmed this result.In SLE, age >65 years (OR 17.3, CI 5.51 to 63.16, p65 years, hypertension and PDN use in patients with SLE.

Background SLE is an autoimmune disease that predominantly affects women. As most epidemiological and interventional studies are on populations with a clear female prevalence, the influence of gender in disease course, drug response and damage accrual is yet to be fully explored and comprehended.Objectives To describe gender differences in disease course, comorbidities, use of medications and long-term outcomes of a large cohort of patients with SLE.Methods Retrospective gender-based analysis of prospectively collected data from a monocentric cohort of Caucasian patients with SLE with at least 1 year of follow-up.Results 417 patients were included, 51 men and 366 women. Men displayed a significantly higher median age at disease onset and diagnosis and a higher prevalence of late-onset SLE, serositis at disease onset, antiphospholipid syndrome (APS) and use of mycophenolate within the first year of disease. Women had a higher prevalence of haematological abnormalities, a higher cumulative exposure to azathioprine and higher cumulative dose of glucocorticoids at 5 years. Male patients had a shorter time to first damage item and a higher prevalence of damage at 1 and 5 years, but this association was no longer significant when late-onset patients were excluded. No differences were found in prevalence of childhood onset, delay between onset and diagnosis, time to renal involvement and histology, cumulative autoantibody positivity, number of flares and hospitalisations, median SLE Damage Index score, type of damage, age and time to first cardiovascular event, chronic kidney disease and death.Conclusions In our cohort, clinical manifestations and disease course were similar in male and female patients; however, male patients displayed higher prevalence of APS and early damage accrual probably due to the later disease onset. These data highlight the importance of an intensive follow-up, prevention and treatment of complications in this category of patients, especially in the first years of disease.

Objective We conducted an international survey of patients with SLE to assess their access, preference and trust in various health information sources pre-COVID-19 and during the COVID-19 pandemic.Methods Patients with SLE were recruited from 18 observational cohorts, and patients self-reporting SLE were recruited through five advocacy organisations. Respondents completed an online survey from June 2020 to December 2021 regarding the sources of health information they accessed in the 12 months preceding (pre-11 March 2020) and during (post-11 March 2020) the pandemic. Multivariable logistic regressions assessed factors associated with accessing news and social media post-11 March 2020, and self-reporting negative impacts from health information accessed through these sources.Results Surveys were completed by 2111 respondents; 92.8% were female, 76.6% had postsecondary education, mean (SD) age was 48.8 (14.0) years. Lupus specialists and family physicians were the most preferred sources pre-11 March 2020 and post-11 March 2020, yet were accessed less frequently (specialists: 78.5% pre vs 70.2% post, difference −8.3%, 95% CI −10.2% to −6.5%; family physicians: 57.1% pre vs 50.0% post, difference −7.1%, 95% CI −9.2% to −5.0%), while news (53.2% pre vs 62.1% post, difference 8.9%, 95% CI 6.7% to 11.0%) and social media (38.2% pre vs 40.6% post, difference 2.4%, 95% CI 0.7% to 4.2%) were accessed more frequently post-11 March 2020 vs pre-11 March 2020. 17.2% of respondents reported negative impacts from information accessed through news/social media. Those outside Canada, older respondents or with postsecondary education were more likely to access news media. Those in Asia, Latin America or younger respondents were more likely to access social media. Those in Asia, older respondents, males or with postsecondary education in Canada, Asia or the USA were less likely to be negatively impacted.Conclusions Physicians, the most preferred and trusted sources, were accessed less frequently, while news and social media, less trusted sources, were accessed more frequently post-11 March 2020 vs pre-11 March 2020. Increasing accessibility to physicians, in person and virtually, may help reduce the consequences of accessing misinformation/disinformation.

Objective In systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE), disease activity and glucocorticoid (GC) exposure are known to contribute to irreversible organ damage. We aimed to examine the association between GC exposure and organ damage occurrence.Methods We conducted a literature search (PubMed (Medline), Embase and Cochrane January 1966–October 2021). We identified original longitudinal observational studies reporting GC exposure as the proportion of users and/or GC use with dose information as well as the occurrence of new major organ damage as defined in the Systemic Lupus International Collaborating Clinics/American College of Rheumatology Damage Index. Meta-regression analyses were performed. Reviews, case-reports and studies with