Cardiovascular evaluation in patients with systemic lupus erythematosus—a cross sectional study

ObjectivesMore than 50% of patients with SLE experience clinical cardiovascular involvement during the course of the illness. We studied the relationship between disease duration, SLE disease activity index (SLEDAI), steroid use and cardiovascular abnormalities, and documented the extent of dyslipidaemia in SLE.MethodsEighty-two consecutive patients suffering from SLE were recruited in this cross sectional study. Lipid parameters, SLEDAI, ECG and echocardiography were obtained in all patients, and treadmill test (TMT) and coronary angiogram (CAG) were performed in selected patients. Chi-square test and Fisher's exact test was applied to determine the relation between cardiovascular status and steroid dose. Mann-Whitney U test and unpaired T test were applied in other cases.ResultsWe did not find any influence of disease duration (P = 0.129), SLEDAI (P = 0.429) or steroid use (P = 0.287) on the cardiovascular abnormalities observed in ECG, echocardiogram, CAG or TMT. Steroid doses influenced the serum triglycerides (P = 0.000029) and HDL-C (P = 0.00826) but not LDL-C (P = 0.3720) or total cholesterol (P = 0.2488) levels. There was high prevalence of dyslipidaemia (60%) and cardiovascular abnormalities (58.5%) in patients with SLE.ConclusionsProper clinical evaluation and investigations can unveil cardiac abnormalities in most patients with SLE who do not have symptoms at early stage of disease. Further studies are needed to determine the risk factors.