Do Improved Survival Rates of Patients with Systemic Lupus Erythematosus Reflect a Global Trend?

Excerpt

Systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE) is a chronic disease that affects many organ systems and manifests a broad spectrum of laboratory and clinical features. Clinically, it is generally a remitting/recurring disease. While it is of mild severity in a significant number of patients, it can be severe and refractory to therapy in others.

Mortality and survival rates are important outcome measures that have long been the subject of research in SLE. Mortality studies have addressed causes of death, survival rates, and standardized mortality ratios (SMR), and have identified predictors associated with early and late death^1–3. The development of various valid…