engleski

The occurence of ACR classification criteria for SLE in cohort of Croatian patients

Systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE) is chronic inflammatory non-infectious disease. It is systemic disease of unknown etiology, which affects most organs and organic systems with a broad range of clinical manifestations. Disease outcome has greatly changed during last decades mostly because of availability of better diagnostic and therapeutic options. This paper analyzed data of patients from 2 outpatient facilities procesed and treated by two rheumatologists in our outpatient clinic. We have evaluated medical histories of all our patients from last 25 years. Than we have sorted medical documentation from all patients who have been diagnosed with SLE and who are Croatian citizens/living in Croatia. We revised medical histories of our group and separated histories of patients who have fullfilled ≥4 ACR criteria cummulatively. With that last revision we have abstracted medical records from 162 patients with SLE who fulfilled ≥4 criteria. After forming the group we have evaluated the frequency of occurrence of certain classification criteria in our patients in the time of disease onset, time of diagnosis and in the time of study. Group of 145 female and 17 male patients with average age 46.7 years has been studied. The average number of fullfilled criteria at the time of the study was 5.4, and 3.8 at the time of diagnosis. The most frequent classification criterion in the time of study was positive ANA titer, which was represented 155/162 patients. Immunological disorder (positive dsDNA, Sm, LAC) has been manifested in 125/162 patients. Arthritis occurred in 115/162 patients, hematological disorder in 114/162, malar rash in 100/162 and photosensitivity in 84/162 patients. Oral ulcers has been documented in 84/162 patients while serositis occured in 28/162 and neuropsychiatric disorder in 3/162 patients. Processing the collected data and comparison with data from the recent literature we did not find any significant differences in the frequencies of classification criteria in our group of patients. We have also found that there is a clear change in frequency of occurrence of certain classification criteria within the group depending on the duration of disease.

SLE; ACR; criteria; epidemiology

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