Depression in systemic lupus erythematosus: gender differences in the performance of the Beck Depression Inventory (BDI), Center for Epidemiologic Studies Depression Scale (CES-D), and Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale (HADS).

The prevalence of depressive symptoms in patients with systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE) varies widely between different cohorts (17-75%), primarily due to factors such as the heterogeneity of the samples and the instruments used to detect depressive symptoms. Most of these instruments are self-administered questionnaires that have different characteristics and approaches to depressive symptoms. This study aimed to evaluate gender differences in the performance of three questionnaires used to assess depressive symptoms in patients with SLE: the Beck Depression Inventory (BDI), Center for Epidemiologic Studies Depression Scale (CES-D), and Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale (HADS). This study included 54 male and 54 female SLE patients. Depressive symptoms were assessed using BDI (cutoffs 13 and 15), CES-D and HADS. The gold standard method used was the diagnostic criteria of the fifth edition of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders. Regarding the performance of the BDI questionnaire, no significant differences in sensitivity or specificity were found between the genders. The specificity of the CES-D questionnaire was significantly greater for the male group (83% vs. 62.5%, p = 0.0309), and its sensitivity was non-significantly higher for the female group (92.9% for women and 71.4% for men; p = 0.2474). Regarding the performance of the HADS, we found similar sensitivities between the genders (71.4%) but a higher specificity among the men (95.7% in men and 82.5% in women, p = 0.0741). In conclusion, our results suggest the presence of gender differences in the performance of the questionnaires in SLE patients. The BDI had the most similar performances between the male and female groups. In contrast, the CES-D and HADS-D showed considerable variation in performances between men and women with SLE.

Early discoid lupus erythematosus protects against renal disease in patients with systemic lupus erythematosus: longitudinal data from a large Latin American cohort.

OBJECTIVES: The objective of this study was to examine whether early discoid lupus erythematosus (DLE) would be a protective factor for further lupus nephritis in patients with systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE). METHODS: We studied SLE patients from GLADEL, an inception longitudinal cohort from nine Latin American countries. The main predictor was DLE onset, which was defined as physician-documented DLE at SLE diagnosis. The outcome was time from the diagnosis of SLE to new lupus nephritis. Univariate and multivariate survival analyses were conducted to examine the association of DLE onset with time to lupus nephritis. RESULTS: Among 845 GLADEL patients, 204 (24.1%) developed lupus nephritis after SLE diagnosis. Of them, 10 (4.9%) had DLE onset, compared to 83 (12.9%) in the group of 641 patients that remained free of lupus nephritis (hazard ratio 0.39; P = 0.0033). The cumulative proportion of lupus nephritis at 1 and 5 years since SLE diagnosis was 6% and 14%, respectively, in the DLE onset group, compared to 14% and 29% in those without DLE (P = 0.0023). DLE onset was independently associated with a lower risk of lupus nephritis, after controlling for sociodemographic factors and disease severity at diagnosis (hazard ratio 0.38; 95% confidence interval 0.20-0.71). CONCLUSIONS: Our data indicate that DLE onset reduces the risk of further lupus nephritis in patients with SLE, independently of other factors such as age, ethnicity, disease activity, and organ damage. These findings have relevant prognosis implications for SLE patients and their clinicians. Further studies are warranted to unravel the biological and environmental pathways associated with the protective role of DLE against renal disease in patients with SLE.

Gender differences in systemic lupus erythematosus concerning anxiety, depression and quality of life.

Several studies have demonstrated a high prevalence of depression and anxiety in patients with systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE); however, few data address gender differences regarding these manifestations. This study aimed to investigate gender differences in the prevalence of depressive and anxiety symptoms, and their effect on the quality of life (QOL) of male and female SLE patients. This study included 54 male SLE patients, 54 female SLE patients, 54 male controls and 54 female controls. Depressive symptoms were assessed using the Beck Depression Inventory (BDI), the Center for Epidemiologic Studies Depression Scale (CES-D) and the Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale (HADS); the anxiety symptoms were examined using HADS. We used the Medical Outcomes Study 36-Item Short-Form Health Survey (SF-36) to assess QOL. Depressive symptoms were found in 22.2% of BDI respondents, 24.1% of CES-D respondents and 13% of HADS-D respondents who were male SLE patients; while in the female SLE patient group, they were found in 38.9% of BDI respondents (p = 0.063), 51.9% of CES-D respondents (p = 0.653) and 31.5% of HADS-D respondents (p = 0.003). Anxiety symptoms were found in 16.7% of the male SLE patients and 38.9% of the female SLE patients (p = 0.024). Lower scores on the SF-36 (for QOL) were found in both male and female SLE patients with depression and anxiety symptoms. In conclusion, we observed significant gender differences regarding the prevalence of depressive and anxiety symptoms in patients with SLE, with significantly higher values in the female group. The presence of these symptoms appears to have a negative effect on the QOL of patients of both genders.

Prevalence and clinical significance of anti-ribosomal P antibody in childhood-onset systemic lupus erythematosus.

OBJECTIVE: To investigate the prevalence of the anti-ribosomal P (anti-P) antibodies in childhood-onset systemic lupus erythematosus patients (cSLE), healthy controls and first degree relatives. To elucidate the association between anti-P and disease activity, laboratory and treatment features in cSLE patients. METHODS: We included consecutive SLE patients with disease onset before 16 years. Controls were age- and sex-matched. SLE patients were assessed for clinical and laboratory SLE manifestations, disease activity (SLE Disease Activity Index (SLEDAI)), damage (Systemic Lupus International Collaborating Clinics/American College of Rheumatology Damage Index (SDI)) and current drug exposures. Mood disorders were determined through Becks Depression and Becks Anxiety Inventory. Anti-P measured by enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay. RESULTS: We included 50 consecutive cSLE patients (mean age of 16.82 ± 3.46 years), 35 first degree relatives (mean age of 38.73 ± 3.89 years) and 20 health control (mean age of 18.3 ± 4.97 years). Anti-P was observed in 13 (26%) cSLE patients and in no first-degree relative (p < 0.01) or control (p < 0.01). Anti-P was more frequently observed in patients with anxiety (p < 0.002). No other clinical, laboratory or treatment features, including SLEDAI and SDI scores were associated with the presence of anti-P in cSLE patients. CONCLUSION: Anti-P is frequently observed in cSLE patients and was associated with the presence of anxiety in this cohort of cSLE.

Cerebellar ataxia in systemic lupus erythematosus.

Neuropsychiatric manifestations are commonly observed in systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE) patients; however, cerebellar involvement has rarely been reported. In the presence of acute cerebellar ataxia, etiologies related (focal edema and ischemia) and not related (infections, malignancy and paraneoplastic syndromes) to lupus have to be considered and they imply different treatment strategies. We report the clinical and radiological features of 3 SLE patients who presented with acute cerebellar ataxia. A review of the literature was performed by documenting cases of cerebellar ataxia in SLE and the importance of neuroimaging in the evaluation of these patients.

Greater accrual damage in late-onset systemic lupus erythematosus: a long-term follow-up study.

The main objective of this study was to evaluate the clinical differences and the pattern and extent of organ damage in late-onset systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE). A nested case-control study was performed from patients with SLE followed in the Rheumatology Unit of the State University of Campinas between 1974 and 2005. Patients who developed SLE after the age of 49 were considered late-onset SLE. SLE patients with age <49 years, matched for sex, ethnicity, disease duration and organ damage at study entry were randomly chosen to compose the control group. Baseline and cumulative clinical manifestations, laboratory data, SLE disease activity index (SLEDAI), Systemic Lupus International Collaborating Clinics/American College of Rheumatology-damage index (SDI) and mortality were compared between groups. At diagnosis and follow-up, late-onset group had lower SLEDAI scores when compared with younger age onset. Clinically, they presented less frequently arthritis (P = 0.0002) and malar rash (P = 0.02) and more frequently Raynaud's phenomenon (P = 0.002) and arterial hypertension (P = 0.02) when compared with young onset at diagnosis. Late-onset SLE received lower total corticosteroid dose (P < 0.001) and less frequently cyclophosphamide (P = 0.01). During the study period, late-onset SLE had always lower SLEDAI scores (P = 0.001). At study endpoint, late-onset SLE patients had significantly higher SDI scores (P = 0.001) and a higher mortality rate when compared with younger onset group (P < 0.01). In conclusion, late-onset SLE is milder on presentation and during course of disease, but patients have more organ damage and a higher rate of mortality than young onset SLE. Patients with late onset should be followed with close monitoring and early identification of complications is mandatory in this subgroup of patients with SLE.

Neurometabolic changes in normal white matter may predict appearance of hyperintense lesions in systemic lupus erythematosus.

To determine if neurometabolic changes in the white matter (WM) of systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE) patients may predict the appearance of small hyperintense lesions on T2-weighted magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) inside the magnetic resonance spectroscopy (MRS) region of interest (ROI). We included 30 SLE patients and 23 controls. We performed single voxel proton MRS over the superior-posterior region of the corpus callosum. We measured signals from N-acetyl-compounds (NAA), choline (Cho) and creatine-phosphocreatin (Cr) and determined NAA/Cr and Cho/Cr ratios. After a minimum of 12 months, MRI and MRS were repeated in all patients and nine volunteers. Twenty patients had normal MRI and 10 patients had MRI hyperintense lesions in the MRS ROI at baseline. All patients had hyperintense lesions in the MRS ROI in follow-up MRIs. All SLE patients had increased Cho/Cr values at both MRS when compared with normal controls (P = 0.001). In addition, there was an increase in Cho/Cr values when patients' baseline and follow-up MRS were compared (P = 0.001). We observed a correlation between Cho/Cr ratios and number of WM lesions (r = 0.69; P = 0.001). Increased Cho/Cr in normal appearing WM may be indicative of future appearance of hyperintense T2-weighted MRI lesions in SLE patients.

Voxel-based morphometry of brain SPECT can detect the presence of active central nervous system involvement in systemic lupus erythematosus.

OBJECTIVE: To determine the value of voxel-based morphometry (VBM) of brain SPECT (single-photon emission computed tomography) images (BSI) in discriminating active central nervous system (CNS) manifestations in systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE) patients. PATIENTS AND METHODS: Forty SLE patients (mean age 33 yrs) and 33 normal volunteers were submitted to BSI. SLE patients were screened for the presence of CNS involvement following the American College of Rheumatology (ACR) case definition. Patients with CNS infections, uraemia, diabetes and previous ischaemic or haemorrhagic stroke were excluded. Magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) scans were obtained in a 2T scanner (Elscint Prestige) with T1- and T2-weighted images. BSI were performed after injection of 1110 MBq (30 mCi) of (99m)Tc-ECD (ethyl-cysteinate-dimer). BSI were analysed using the statistical parametric mapping. After normalization, segmentation and smoothing the groups of SLE patients with active and inactive CNS manifestations and healthy volunteers were compared using VBM. Post-processed images were compared voxel-by-voxel using t-test in order to determine differences of intensity between groups. This analysis included grand mean scaling, proportional threshold masking (set to 0.4) and implicit masking. A P-value of 0.001 and cluster size of 32 were taken into consideration. RESULTS: VBM analyses of BSI did not show any differences between SLE patients with inactive CNS involvement and normal controls. However, the group of SLE patients with active CNS involvement had a global hypoperfusion, more intense in the frontal, dorsolateral and medial temporal lobe when compared with SLE patients without CNS involvement (P = 0.001) and healthy volunteers (P = 0.001). CONCLUSION: VBM of BSI is a useful and objective method for detecting perfusion abnormalities in SLE patients, which is indicative of active CNS involvement. However, it is not helpful in differentiating the clinical sub-types of CNS involvement according to the ACR classification.

Hippocampal atrophy in systemic lupus erythematosus.

OBJECTIVES: To determine the frequency and progression of hippocampal atrophy in systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE) and the clinical, laboratory and treatment features associated with its occurrence. METHODS: 150 patients with SLE and 40 healthy volunteers were enrolled in our study. A complete clinical, laboratory and neurological evaluation was performed. Magnetic resonance imaging was carried out using a 2T scanner (Elscint Prestige) and coronal T1-weighted images were used for manual volumetric measurements. Atrophy was defined as values <2 standard deviations from the means of controls. RESULTS: At entry into the study, the mean right and left hippocampal volumes of patients were significantly smaller than the hippocampal volumes of controls (p<0.001). After the follow-up magnetic resonance imaging, a significant progression of reduction in right and left hippocampal volumes in patients was observed (p<0.001). At entry, atrophy was identified in 43.9% and at follow-up in 66.7% of patients with SLE. Hippocampal atrophy was related to disease duration (p<0.001) total corticosteroid dose (p = 0.01) and history of central nervous system (CNS) manifestations (p = 0.01). Progression of atrophy was associated with cumulative corticosteroid dose (p = 0.01) and number of CNS events (p = 0.01). Patients with cognitive impairment had more severe hippocampal atrophy than those without. CONCLUSION: Disease duration, total corticosteroid dose and greater number of CNS manifestations were associated with hippocampal atrophy in patients with SLE. A significant progression of hippocampal atrophy related to total corticosteroid dose and number of CNS events was observed. Further studies are necessary to confirm these findings.

Clinical implications of migraine in systemic lupus erythematosus: relation to cumulative organ damage.

The aim of this study was to determine the clinical implications of migraine in systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE) using the cumulative organ damage scores (SLICC-DI). Eighty SLE, 40 rheumatoid arthritis (RA) patients and 40 controls (non SLE, nor RA out-patients), all women, were included. Migraine was defined according to the International Headache Society (IHS) criteria for neuropsychiatric SLE. Disease activity was measured by MEX-SLEDAI and cumulative organ damage by SLICC-DI. Statistics were obtained by Chi-square and Fischer's exact tests. anova was used for comparing means. Migraine was identified in 42.5% of SLE patients, compared to 12.5% of RA patients (P < 0.05) and 10.0% (P < 0.05) in the control group. In the SLE group, a significant association between migraine and Raynaud's phenomenon (P = 0.003, OR = 10.1; 95%CI 2.9-35) and antiphospholipid antibodies (P = 0.0012; OR = 7.5; 95%CI 2.5-22.9) was noted. SLE patients with active migraine had higher MEX-SLEDAI scores than SLE patients without migraine. SLE patients with past history of migraine had significantly higher SLICC scores than SLE patients without migraine. History of migraine was associated with greater organ damage. Active migraine was associated with higher disease activity, antiphospholipid antibodies and worsening of Raynaud's phenomenon. The increased cumulative organ damage in SLE patients with past history of migraine justifies the routine evaluation of migraine in clinical practice.

Cognitive impairment in rheumatoid arthritis.

The objective of this study was to determine the frequency of cognitive impairment in patients with rheumatoid arthritis (RA). A cross-sectional study of 40 patients with RA and 40 healthy controls was performed. To assess cognitive impairment, anxiety and depression, the following standardized psychiatric and clinical research methods were used: the Mini-Mental State Examination (MMSE), logic memory tests, short and long memory tests, verbal fluency tests, attention tests, the Brief Psychiatric Rating Scale (BPRS), the Hospital Anxiety and Depression (HAD)/CAGE scale and the Beck Depression Inventory (BDI). Patients and controls with incomplete primary education were excluded from the study. Statistics were performed by chi-square test and by Fisher's exact test. Cognitive impairment was observed in 30% of patients with RA and in 7.5% (p < 0.05) of healthy controls. Patients with RA had a significantly worse outcome in verbal fluency (p < 0.05), logic memory (p < 0.05) and short memory (p < 0.05). No statistical difference was observed among the results obtained in the MMSE, BPRS, HAD/CAGE and BDI. There was no significant relation to the duration of the illness, use of corticotherapy or disability. We observed a high prevalence of cognitive impairment in RA patients. Cognitive impairment was not related to clinical and treatment features or disability. More studies are necessary to determine clinical impact of cognitive impairment in RA.

Causas de óbito em lúpus eritematoso sistêmico / Causes of death in systemic lupus erythematosus

Os autores realizam um estudo retrospectivo para analisar as causas de óbito de 55 pacientes com diagnóstico de lúpus eritematoso sistêmico (LES), havendo dados anatomopatológicos post-mortem em 17 casos. Dados clínicos mostraram que a grande maioria era de mulheres (89,0 por cento) e caucasóides (74,5 por cento). As principais causas de morte foram infecçäo (48,0 por cento) e doença cardiovascular (13,0 por cento). O exame anatomopatológico dos 17 pacientes mostrou alta frequência de nefropatia lúpica (88,2 por cento, 15 pacientes) e infecçäo pulmonar (76,5 por cento, 13 pacientes). Portanto, infecçäo foi a principal causa de óbito no LES e relacionada com a presença de nefrite