MiscellaneousRelation of Carotid Intima-Media Thickness and Plaque With Incident Cardiovascular Events in Women With Systemic Lupus Erythematosus
Section snippets
Methods
A total of 392 women with SLE were enrolled in this study. We enrolled 289 women from the Pittsburgh Lupus Cardiovascular Study (1995 to 1998) as part of a longitudinal National Institutes of Health–funded study of CVD in patients with SLE. This cohort includes patients seen either at the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center inpatient and outpatient facilities or by rheumatologists in the Pittsburgh metropolitan area. Thus, the sample represents a community-based spectrum of mild to severe
Results
The 392 female subjects with SLE had a mean age of 43.5 years and were predominantly Caucasian (77.3%). The 2 study sites differed by ethnicity, level of education, and duration of follow-up (Table 1). The mean SLE disease duration was 10.7 years, and the mean Systemic Lupus International Collaborating Clinics damage score was 1.27 (Table 2). The overall mean duration of follow-up was 7.9 years. A total of 65 new CV events occurred during follow-up: 22 episodes of angina, 10 myocardial
Discussion
In this cohort of women with SLE who were free of CV events at study entry, carotid IMT and the presence of carotid plaque at baseline were significantly associated with incident hard CV events during a mean follow-up period of 7.9 years. The presence of carotid plaque at baseline was associated with a greater than fourfold increased risk for any hard CV events. Kaplan-Meier estimates indicated that the presence of plaque was related to a higher rate of any CV event compared with the absence of
Acknowledgment
We thank the study participants and the funding agencies. We thank Dr. William Pearce, Department of Vascular Surgery, Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine, and Dr. David D. McPherson, Division of Cardiovascular Medicine, University of Texas Houston, for providing oversight for the carotid ultrasound examinations for SOLVABLE. We also thank Michael Anderson for his editorial assistance.
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Cited by (0)
This study was funded by the Arthritis Foundation, Lupus Foundation of America, Western Pennsylvania Chapter, grant-in-aid from the American Heart Association, grant R01 AR046588-01 and P60 AR030692 from the National Institutes of Health, M01-RR000056 and M01-RR000048 from the NIH/NCRR/GCRC, and P60 AR044811-01 from the NIH/MAC. Additional author support: AHK (ACR REF Physician Scientist Development Award; NIH K23 AR051044), AL (ACR REF/Amgen Rheumatology Fellowship Training Award; The Driskill Foundation), RR-G (NIH/NCATS UL 1 RR025741; NIH K24 AR002138), SM (NIH K24 AR002213-01).
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