Patients with end-stage renal disease caused by lupus nephritis have a lower risk of death or of experiencing cardiovascular events if they are Asian or and Hispanic, compared with whites and African Americans, Dr. Jose A. Gómez-Puerta and his colleagues wrote in a paper published online Jan. 28 in Arthritis Care & Research.
African Americans also had 27% greater risk of death than did whites in the study, which analyzed a population of more than 12,000 patients enrolled in the U.S. Renal Data System during 1995-2008. This is the first nonacademic, cohort-based study to investigate outcomes among lupus nephritis–linked end-stage renal disease patients by race and ethnicity, the authors said.
Even after researchers adjusted for multiple confounding factors, they found 1-, 5-, and 10-year survival rates were better in Asians than among whites, and in Hispanics than among non-Hispanics, although more research will be needed to determine the exact mechanisms behind the racial gaps. Read the full article at: Arthritis Care & Research (doi:10.1002/acr.22562).