Abstract
Tselios, et al reported in their recent study that patients with systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE) who receive prolonged antimalarial (AM) treatment are at increased risk for elevated cardiac biomarkers [brain natriuretic peptide (BNP) and high-sensitivity cardiac troponin I (HS-cTnI)], particularly when persistently elevated creatine phosphokinase (CPK) is present1. Among a well-characterized SLE cohort of 179 patients, the authors found that 16 (all without cardiac disease, renal failure, or pulmonary arterial hypertension) presented an increase of at least 1 cardiac biomarker.