Gender differences in disease activity and clinical features in newly diagnosed systemic lupus erythematosus patients

Muñoz-Grajales, C
González, L A
Alarcón, G S
Acosta-Reyes, J

¹Division of Rheumatology, Hospital Pablo Tobón Uribe, Medellín, Colombia
²Division of Rheumatology, Universidad of Antioquia, Medellín, Colombia
³Department of Medicine, Division of Rheumatology and Clinical Immunology, The University of Alabama at Birmingham, Birmingham, AL, USA
⁴Department of Public Health, Universidad del Norte, Barranquilla, Colombia

Jorge Acosta-Reyes, Department of Public Health, Universidad del Norte, Km 5 Via Puerto Colombia, Barranquilla, 081007, Colombia. Email: [email protected]

Received August 6, 2015

Accepted February 1, 2016

Lupus 25(11):p 1217-1223, October 2016. | DOI: 10.1177/0961203316635286

Objective

The objective of this paper is to compare disease activity and clinical features at diagnosis in male and female patients with systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE).

Methods

This was a cross-sectional study in which every male patient (n = 40) was matched with three female patients of the same age (±5 years) and racial/ethnic group; disease activity as per the Systemic Lupus Erythematosus Disease Activity Index (SLEDAI) and disease manifestations at the time of diagnosis were compared.

Results

Alopecia and anti-Ro antibodies were more frequent in female patients. No statistically significant difference in any other disease characteristics was found. However, male gender was associated with a risk of severe disease activity at the time of diagnosis (as determined by SLEDAI ≥12 score) independent of age, racial/ethnic group, anti-Ro positivity or time to criteria accrual (OR: 3.11 95% CI, 1.09–8.92; p = 0.035).

Conclusion

In newly diagnosed SLE patients, male gender is associated with higher disease activity despite the fact that male and female patients seem to experience similar overall disease manifestations.