CARDIAC-FUNCTION IN SYSTEMIC LUPUS-ERYTHEMATOSUS

Cardiovascular disease is one of the main causes of morbidity and mort ality in patients with systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE). The observa tion that the disease may affect all cardiac tissues, although frequen tly in a subclinical fashion, has come to attention only recently afte r the introduction of noninvasive sensitive cardiac imaging technology in clinical practice. We review the current perspective of this topic , placing special emphasis on what is known and what is not known rega rding cardiac disease in the pediatric population with SLE. Our curren t lack of information calls for the initiation of collaborative resear ch in this area.