Correlation Between Steroid Therapy and Lipid Profile in Systemic Lupus Erythematosus Patients

Systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE) is an autoimmune disease with high mortality and morbidity rates, one of the causes of which is cardiovascular events. Dyslipidaemia is known to be one of the main risk factors for cardiovascular disorders and can be induced by steroid therapy, which is commonly administered to SLE patients. This study aimed to determine whether there is a correlation between steroid dose and lipid profile in SLE patients.

The study was a correlative analytic study with a cross-sectional design. Data were obtained from the Hasan Sadikin Lupus Registry (HSLR) and the medical records of patients registered in the Rheumatology Division, Dr Hasan Sadikin Hospital, Bandung, from 2008 to 2019. Inclusion criteria were SLE patients who had undergone lipid profile examination and received steroid therapy. We excluded patients taking cyclosporine A or statins, and patients treated with steroids for less than a year. A simple random sampling method was performed and Pearson's correlation test was used for the analysis.

We recruited 41 female patients with an average age of 30.88 ± 9.29 years old. The average dose of steroid in this study was 5.63 mg/day, while the average lipid profile was 177.51 mg/dL, 105.22 mg/dL, 61 mg/dL and 92.98 mg/dL for total cholesterol, low-density lipoprotein (LDL), high-density lipoprotein (HDL) and triglycerides, respectively. Correlations between steroid dose and total cholesterol (r = 0.375; p = 0.016), and between steroid dose and triglyceride level (r = 0.416; p = 0.007) were statistically significant in SLE patients. However, this study showed no correlation between steroid and HDL level (r = 0.206; p = 0.196) or LDL level (r = 0.308; p = 0.05).

This study showed that the applied steroid dose in SLE patients correlated with total cholesterol and triglyceride levels, but not with HDL or LDL.