Assesment of Vascular Risk in Systemic Lupus Erythematosus Patients

Objective: INTRODUCTION: Systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE) is an autoimmune disease. Generalized inflammation of connective tissues and vessel structures. Association with hypertension, myocardial infarction and risk of stroke. Pathogenesis of vascular disease in SLE is not clearly understood – multifactorial. Atherosclerotic factors, accelerated atherosclerosis with a risk of developing cardiovascular diseases. Several studies concluded that PWV was related to both SLE-related and traditional cardiovascular risk factors. Other studies have shown an association between PWV and metabolic syndrome (MetS) in SLE patients OBJECTIVES: Primary endpoint - determine whether carotid-femoral pulse-wave velocity (PWV) as a measure of arterial stiffness is increased in Systemic Lupus Erythematosus (SLE) patients asymptomatic for cardiovascular disease (CVD) and at low risk for CVD in comparison to healthy controls asymptomatic for CVD and with low risk of CVD. Secondary endpoints - evaluation of Early Vascular Aging prevalence in normotensive SLE patients compared to subjects with or without Hypertension. Design and method: Evaluation of arterial stiffness in SLE followed in an Internal Medicine Department. Exclusion criteria: age <18, pregnancy, arrythmia, cancer and PWV evaluation with a Standard deviation >10%. The control group will be recruited from Primary Health Care Units and will be subjected to clinical examination/measurements. We aim to enroll 150 SLE patients and 300 controls. Results: We have already performed a first analysis in 2013 and we evaluated the value of aPWV in our SLE patients; however, in that study we lacked a control group. We analyzed 97 patients (45,4±12,4 years) with aPWV and concluded that its median value was 7.015±1,53m/s, and age was the most important factor influencing aPWV value; central obesity, obesity, arterial hypertension, dyslipidemia, menopause and family history of cardiovascular events had a great impact in aPWV. However, we lacked maraesa control group and this was our main default, so we started a new evaluation of SLE patients and with posterior evaluation of controls. Conclusions: Arterial Stiffness could represent a barometer of vascular risk in SLE and they could be potential candidates for more proactive vascular risk management.