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NEW YORK (Reuters Health) Nov 03 - Although patients with systemic
lupus erythematosus (SLE) are at increased risk of cardiovascular
and cerebrovascular events, their outcomes after heart attacks and
strokes are similar to those of patients without the disease.
Dr. Michael M. Ward, of the National Institute of Arthritis and
Musculoskeletal and Skin Diseases in Bethesda, Maryland, analyzed
a database of all patients hospitalized in California over a 4-year
period for acute myocardial infarction or a cerebrovascular accident.
Dr. Ward compared AMI outcomes of 519 SLE patients with those of
214,771 patients without the disease, and stroke outcomes of 905
SLE patients with those of 293,326 patients without the disease.
His findings appear in the October issue of Arthritis & Rheumatism.
Dr. Ward reports that in men, AMI outcomes did not differ between
the groups. Similarly, there were no differences between groups
in risk of in-hospital mortality, length of stay, or congestive
heart failure in the women. However, women with SLE were less likely
to undergo coronary artery bypass graft surgery during or within
6 months after their initial hospitalization.
After strokes, there was no difference in the outcome in women
with or without SLE, but there was a difference between the two
groups of men. Specifically, men with SLE "were almost twice
as likely" as men without the disease to have a hospital stay
that exceeded the 90th percentile of stays for the same diagnosis-related
group nationwide.
"The outcomes of hospitalization for AMI and cerebrovascular
accidents were generally similar between patients with SLE and those
without," Dr. Ward writes.
"These results," he concludes, "provide reassurance
that individual episodes of AMI and cerebrovascular accidents are
not more severe among patients with SLE."
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