A study on the patterns of haematological manifestations in patients with systemic lupus erythematosus at a tertiary care hospital

Background: Systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE) is the chronic systemic autoimmune disease with a broad spectrum of clinical presentations affecting almost all the organs and tissues. Haematological abnormalities are common and can be the presenting symptom or sign in SLE. Major clinical manifestations include anaemia, leucopenia, thrombocytopenia and antiphospholipid syndrome. Methods: We studied 70 patients with SLE. Complete haemogram was done for all subjects and proportion of patients with various haematological manifestations and their patterns were studied. Results: We found that 96% had anaemia and 4% were free from anaemia with 86% of the study population having low red blood cell count. In the present study, 70% of the study population were having thrombocytopenia and 5.7% having thrombocytosis, 41.4% were having leucopenia and 20% having leucocytosis and 35.7% were having lymphocytopenia with 12.9% having lymphocytosis. Conclusions: Anaemia is the most common finding among haematological manifestations which is seen in 96% of the population followed by 70% having thrombocytopenia, 41.4% having leucopenia and 35.7% having lymphocytopenia.