Systemic lupus erythematosus. Disease outcome in patients with a disease duration of at least 10 years: second evaluation

Data related to the disease course of patients with systemic lupus erythema tosus (SLE) with special attention to the persistence of disease activity i n the long term are scarce. Al this moment reliable figures are only known about the survival rate as a measure of outcome. The aim of this multicente r study was to describe the outcome of SLE patients with a disease duration of greater than 10y. Outcome parameters were two disease activity-scoring systems (SLEDAI and ECLAM), the end organ damage (SLICC/ACR damage index) a nd treatment. Our results are derived from 187 SLE patients followed at 10 different centres in Europe over a period of ly. Serious clinical signs pr exacerbations, defined by the occurrence or detoriation of already existing symptoms of renal and cerebral nervous systems were observed in 2-11% of t he patients, seizures and psychosis in 3%, proteinuria in 11% and an increa se in serum creatinine in 5% of the patients. No change took place in the o verall damage index. Yet, the disease course in most patients was character ized by periods of tiredness (42-60%), arthritis (20-25%), skin involvement such as malar rash (32-40%), migraine (15-20%), anaemia (15%) and leucopen ia (17-19%). Summarizing these results it is shown that patients, still und er care after such a long time of having this disease, do have a disease th at is far from extinguished.