PT  - JOURNAL ARTICLE
AU  - Greco, Carol M.
AU  - Li, Tracy
AU  - Sattar, Abdus
AU  - Kao, Amy H.
AU  - Danchenko, Natalya
AU  - Edmundowicz, Daniel
AU  - Sutton-Tyrrell, Kim
AU  - Tracy, Russell P.
AU  - Kuller, Lewis H.
AU  - Manzi, Susan
TI  - Association Between Depression and Vascular Disease in Systemic Lupus Erythematosus
AID  - 10.3899/jrheum.110327
DP  - 2011 Dec 15
TA  - The Journal of Rheumatology
PG  - jrheum.110327
4099  - http://www.jrheum.org/content/early/2011/12/14/jrheum.110327.short
4100  - http://www.jrheum.org/content/early/2011/12/14/jrheum.110327.full
AB  - Objective Systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE) is a chronic inflammatory autoimmune disease with increased prevalence of cardiovascular disease (CVD) and depression. Although depression may contribute to CVD risk in population-based studies, its influence on cardiovascular morbidity in SLE has not been evaluated. We evaluated the association between depression and vascular disease in SLE. Methods A cross-sectional study was conducted from 2002-2005 in 161 women with SLE and without CVD. The primary outcome measure was a composite vascular disease marker consisting of the presence of coronary artery calcium and/or carotid artery plaque. Results In total, 101 women met criteria for vascular disease. In unadjusted analyses, several traditional cardiovascular risk factors, inflammatory markers, adiposity, SLE disease-related factors, and depression were associated with vascular disease. In the final multivariable model, the psychological variable depression was associated with nearly 4-fold higher odds for vascular disease (OR 3.85, 95% CI 1.37, 10.87) when adjusted for other risk factors of age, lower education level, hypertensive status, waist-hip ratio, and C-reactive protein. Conclusion In SLE, depression is independently associated with vascular disease, along with physical factors.