Retinal disease in patients with systemic lupus erythematosus

Objective-To investigate the incidence of retinopathy in systemic lupus ery thematosus (SLE) and to clarify its significance in relation to other clini cal manifestations. Methods-A cross sectional study on lupus retinopathy was made in 69 patient s with SLE. One expert ophthalmologist examined the ocular fundi of the lup us patients without any information of their disease state. Clinical and la boratory findings in the patients with retinopathy and those without were c ompared. Results-Retinopathy was found in 7/69 (10%) patients. The findings included haemorrhages, vasculitis, cotton wool spots, and hard exudates, all of whi ch were considered to reflect vascular damage. Retinopathy was found to be associated with the presence of anticardiolipin antibody (p<0.05) and with central nervous system lupus (p<0.01). The patients with retinopathy had hi gher levels of serum creatinine than the patients without retinopathy (p<0. 01). The disease activity of lupus, as assessed by the maximum SLE disease activity index (SLEDAI) score of the patients, was also significantly highe r in the patients with retinopathy (p<0.03). Conclusion-Incidence of retinopathy in SLE was similar to that in previous reports and it may reflect tissue microangiopathy, particularly associated with vasculitis or anticardiolipin antibodies, or both.