Our large multicenter study identified the finding that the initial appearance of childhood-onset SLE is characterized by comparable high frequency of internal organ involvement and some distinct clinical and laboratory features in early-onset and adolescent groups.

To our knowledge, this is the first study to characterize IFI in patients with cSLE. We identified that disease activity and current glucocorticoid use were the main risk factors for these life-threatening infections, mainly in the first years of disease course, with a high rate of fatal outcome.