VIENNA — Over one-quarter of a cohort of childhood-onset systemic lupus erythematosus patients had evidence of irreversible brain damage, Vibke Lilleby, M.D., reported at the annual European congress of rheumatology.
Her 71-patient series with childhood-onset SLE had a mean age of 13 years at symptom onset and a 11-year disease duration. The brain showed irreversible damage in 28% of cases. Irreversible renal damage and musculoskeletal damage were each present in 13%, according to Dr. Lilleby of the University of Oslo.
Mean SLE International Collaborating Clinics/American College of Rheumatology Damage Index—a validated measure of nonreversible organ damage—was 1.3.
The high rate of irreversible brain and other organ damage in this cohort is a byproduct of the greatly improved long-term prognosis for childhood-onset SLE during the past 4 decades. Patients who in former years would have had a poor life expectancy are today surviving much longer, with an associated increase in multiorgan morbidity due to the disease process itself or to its treatment, she explained at the congress, sponsored by the European League Against Rheumatism.