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Assessment of Damage in Korean Patients with Systemic Lupus Erythematosus
YOON-KYOUNG SUNG, NAM WOOK HUR, JINA LEE SINSKEY, DAWON PARK, and SANG-CHEOL BAE ABSTRACT. Objective. To determine the prevalence of systemic damage in Korean patients with systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE) and to elucidate associations between possible risk factors and the presence of damage. Methods. The Systemic Lupus International Collaborating Clinics/American College of Rheumatology Damage Index (SDI) was used to quantify systemic damage in 588 patients who were enrolled consecutively at the Hospital for Rheumatic Diseases, Seoul, South Korea. The frequencies and means of each variable were compared using the chi-square test or Student t test between the presence and absence of damage. Multivariate models were used to investigate the relationship between possible risk factors (age, disease duration, and use of intravenous cyclophosphamide) and the presence of damage. Results. Among the 588 patients, 244 (41.5%) exhibited damage at a mean of 54 months after onset of disease. The musculoskeletal (14.3% of patients) and renal (13.3%) systems were involved most frequently, followed by neuropsychiatric (10.7%), ocular (4.6%), and pulmonary (4.1%) system involvement. The presence of damage was associated with higher age, longer disease duration, and a high frequency of intravenous cyclophosphamide use. Conclusion. Systemic damage in at least one of the items of the SDI was present in 41.5% of our Korean patients with SLE, this damage being significantly more prevalent in patients who were older, had longer disease duration, and received more intravenous pulses of cyclophosphamide. (First Release Mar 15 2007; J Rheumatol 2007;34:987–91) Key Indexing Terms:
SYSTEMIC LUPUS ERYTHEMATOSUS From the Department of Internal Medicine, Division of Rheumatology, and the Hospital for Rheumatic Diseases, Hanyang University, Seoul, Korea. Supported by the Brain Korea 21 program of the Ministry of Education and Human Resources Development, Republic of Korea. Y-K. Sung, MD, PhD, Clinical Instructor; N.W. Hur, PhD, Contract Professor; J.L. Sinskey, BS, Internship Student; D. Park, Internship Student; S-C. Bae, MD, PhD, MPH, Professor, Hanyang University. Address reprint requests to Dr. S-C. Bae, Hospital for Rheumatic Diseases, Hanyang University Medical Center, 17 Haengdang-Dong, Seongdong-Gu, Seoul 133-792, South Korea. E-mail: scbae@hanyang.ac.kr Accepted for publication January 5, 2007.
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