Childhood-onset systemic lupus erythematosus: A comparative study of African Americans and Latin Americans

This study compared the clinical and serologic features in two different et hnic groups of patients with childhood-onset systemic lupus erythematosus ( SLE). One hundred seventy-one SLE patients comprised the study population; 61 (55 girls and 6 boys) were African American with age at onset of 13+/-2. 9 years, and 110 (97 girls and 13 boys) were Latin American (Colombian) wit h age at onset of 13+/-3.2 years. Clinical, demographic, and laboratory dat a were obtained by chart review using a standard data collection form. African-American patients more commonly manifested discoid skin lesions, ma lar rash, pulmonary fibrosis, and pleuritis, and less commonly manifested p hotosensitivity, livedo reticularis, and vascular thrombosis than did Latin Americans. In addition, there was a higher frequency of anti-dsDNA, anti-S m, anti-RNP, and anti-Re positivity among African-Americans compared with L atin-American patients. These results suggest the presence of ethnic differ ences in the clinical expression of SLE.