Abstract

PAREDES ROMAN, Nohelia; TORRES, Estela  and  MONTIEL-JAROLIN, Dora. Late onset systemic lupus erythematosus. Rev. Nac. (Itauguá) [online]. 2012, vol.4, n.1, pp.8-14. ISSN 2072-8174.

ABSTRACT Introduction: Late onset systemic lupus erythematosus is a disease that begins at age 50 or older, and occurs between 6% and 18% of lupus patients, presenting particular demographic, clinical and laboratory features. Objective: To determine the prevalence of patients with late onset systemic lupus erythematosus. Describe the clinical and serological features of patients with late onset systemic lupus erythematosus and compare them with patients with early onset systemic lupus erythematosus. Materials and Methods: Design: Retrospective cohort Study Subjects: Cohort 1: Men and women, aged greater than or equal to 50 years, diagnosed with Systemic Lupus Erythematosus, hospitalized at the Department of Internal Medicine, National Hospital between August 2008 and August 2011. Cohort 2: Men and women, aged less than 50 years, diagnosed with Systemic Lupus Erythematosus, hospitalized at the Department of Internal Medicine, National Hospital between August 2008 and August 2011. Results: Of the 200 patients diagnosed with Systemic Lupus Erythematosus, 37 (18.5%) were late-onset SLE. There was a female gender predominance: 20 cases (54%) vs. male 17 cases (46%). Of the early-onset SLE patients, 135 (83%) patients were female and 28 (17%) were male. The female-male ratio was lower in the late-onset population (1.1:1 vs. 4,8:1 p = 0.003). Regarding the clinical manifestations of late-onset SLE patients, a lower frequency of photosensitivity (p = 0.02) was observed, however other clinical manifestations such as articular, hematologic, renal, neurological, serous, pulmonary and general symptoms did not present any significant differences between late and early-onset SLE. Regarding the serological features, late-onset SLE patients had a lower frequency of anti-DNA positive, and hypocomplementemia (p = 0.01) in relation to early-onset SLE.

Keywords : Lupus erythematosus; age; elderly; late-onset; Paraguay.

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