The Risk Factors For Chinese Patients With Lupus Cardiac Valvular Disease

Objective: To explore the risk factors for developing cardiac valvular disease i n patients with systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE). Method: A retrospective study of 100 patients with cardiac valvular disease in SLE ,and 84 randomly selected patients with SLE without cardiac valvular disease as controls was designed. Standard methods were used for laboratory test. Result: Patients with cardiac valvular disease in SLE were no difference in age,disease duration,sex distribution, nationality distribution with the control group (P>0.05). The laboratory tests showed that the positive rate of anti-cardiolipin antibodies(aCL) is higher in the group with cardiac valvular disease in SLE than in the control group(P<0.05). However the positive rate of anti-RNP antibodies is lowwer in the group with cardiac valvular diease in SLE than in control group (P<0.05). The patients with cardiac valvular disease in SLE were no difference in disease avtivity index (SLEDAI) over nine with the control group (P>0.05). Conclusion: The patients with positive anti-cardiolipin antibodies (aCL) appear to have a higher risk of cardiac valvular involvement .These patients should be carefully monitored for the development of cardiac valvular disease in SLE.