Early detection of premature subclinical coronary atherosclerosis in systemic lupus erythematosus patients

• Published in: The Egyptian heart journal 2013-12, Vol.65 (4), p.281-288
• Main Authors: Othman, Khaled Mohamed Said, Assaf, Naglaa Youssef
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Atherosclerosis; Calcium score; Coronary calcification; SLE
• ISSN: 1110-2608; 2090-911X
• DOI: 10.1016/j.ehj.2012.12.003

To elucidate early coronary atherosclerotic changes in premenopausal systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE) female patients without clinical cardiovascular manifestation using a 64-slice Multi-detector computed tomography (MDCT) scan to detect coronary calcification and measure coronary calcium score (CCS), and to find out its correlation to some traditional and non-traditional risk factors. Sixty consecutive premenopausal SLE female patients, and sixty age and sex matched healthy subjects without known systemic, immunological, or cardiovascular disease (served as a control group) underwent clinical examination, serological analysis, and 64-slice MDCT-based coronary calcium scoring. All the clinical, serological, and MDCT parameters of the patients were correlated. Coronary calcification (CC) was seen in 21 patients (35%), the number of atherosclerotic calcified plaques ranged from 0 to 19. Calcium scores ranged from 0 to 843. In contrast to control subjects, SLE patients had significantly higher erythrocyte sedimentation rate (ESR), C-reactive protein (CRP), total cholesterol level, low-density lipoprotein (LDL), immunoglobulin G (IgG) and IgM anti-cardiolipin antibodies, serum intracellular adhesion molecule (sICAM) and E-selectin levels. SLE patients had highly significantly more atherosclerotic plaques (3±0.66 compared to 0.1±0.07, p