Clinical and immunological profile of SLE patients: Experience from a Chennai-based tertiary care centre (revisited)

Abstract

All the patients who satisfied the 1997 revised ACR classification criteria for SLE were chosen, detailed history was obtained and complete clinical examination Abstract Aim: To study the clinical and immunological profile of patients with newly detected systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE) presented to a tertiary care centre. Methods: The study involved patients with newly detected SLE (fulfilling the 1997 revised ACR criteria for SLE), admitted in Madras Medical College and Rajiv Gandhi Government General Hospital Chennai between January 2012 and December 2013. Results: Hundred patients with SLE were assessed for a period of two years, among them, 59% of the subjects belonged to the 3 rd decade of life; 86% of the subjects were females and the remaining were males (M:F ratio 6:1). Fever (81%) was the commonest initial manifestation reported, followed by arthritis (61%), cutaneous (58%), neuropsychiatric (45%), and renal (44%) manifestations. In patients with lupus nephritis, class IV (38.63%) was common, followed by class III (22.72%) and class V (15.9%). ANA was positive in all patients (100%), anti-Smith (Sm) was found in 49% of the subjects, followed by anti-Ro (47%), anti-ds DNA (45%), anti U1 RNP (42%) and reduced complements in 72%. Conclusion: SLE was more common among young females in their 3rd decade. In our study, patients had more of constitutional symptoms followed by joint and skin manifestations. High disease activity was noted in 84% of the patients. The incidence of neuropsychiatric and cardiovascular manifestations was more compared to other Indian studies.