Survival impact of autoantibodies in systemic lupus erythematosus
Gulko, P.S.; Reveille, J.D.; Koopman, W.J.; Burgard, S.L.; Bartolucci, A.A.; Alarcón, G.S.
Journal of Rheumatology 21(2): 224-228
1994
ISSN/ISBN: 0315-162X PMID: 8182629 Document Number: 436392
Objective: To determine the frequency, the clinical and laboratory associations, and the impact on survival of anti-dsDNA, anti-Sm, anti-nRNP, anti-Ro, and anti-La in patients with systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE). Methods: The clinical and laboratory features of 94 patients with SLE tested for anti-dsDNA, antinRNP, anti-Sm, anti-Ro and anti-La were studied. Survival analyses were performed by the Kaplan Meier method. Results: Anti-Ro, anti-nRNP and anti-Sm were found with lower frequency in our patients compared to other reports. There was a higher frequency of anti-Sm (19.5 vs 10%, p = 0.0093) and antinRNP positivity (29.2 vs 7.5%, p = 0.006) among African American patients compared to Caucasian patients. No clinical or laboratory associations were found with any of the autoantibodies. Patients had a mean followup up 11.8 years. There were no protective or negative effects of the different autoantibodies on the probability of survival of the patients studied. Conclusion: Our study failed to demonstrate the impact of the autoantibodies studied in the survival of our patients.