Older black race is a risk factor for metabolic syndrome in cutaneous lupus erythematosus

cutaneous lupus; metabolic syndrome; autoimmune disease; medical dermatology; rheumatic diseases Metabolic syndrome (MetS) results from chronic, low-grade inflammation seen in patients with systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE).1,2 Little is known regarding MetS and cutaneous lupus erythematosus (CLE).One study demonstrated increased frequency of MetS in 60 discoid lupus erythematosus patients versus 82 controls but was limited by a homogeneous population.3 Thus, we sought to determine the frequency of MetS and identify risk factors in a diverse cohort of CLE patients.This was a retrospective cross-sectional case-control pilot study of 78 CLE patients enrolled in the University of Texas Southwestern CLE Registry and 156 age-, sex-, and race-matched controls from the Dallas Heart Study.The definition of MetS was adapted from the Adult Treatment Panel Criteria III (Supplementary Table 1).4 BMI ≥30 was used as a conservative surrogate of waist circumference.Patients meeting ≥3 criteria before or within two months of their study visit were documented as having MetS.Patients with SLE or other autoimmune skin diseases were excluded.