Clinico-Laboratory Features and Associated Factors of Lupus Mesenteric Vasculitis

Lupus mesenteric vasculitis (LMV) is a rare but potentially life-threatening clinical entity in systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE) patients.

The present study was initiated to explore the clinical features and associated factors of LMV in SLE patients.

We conducted a retrospective study on 50 cases of SLE patients with lupus mesenteric vasculitis (LMV) from January 2010 to December 2019 and 89 cases of non-LMV-SLE patients with similar demographic and comorbidities were included as control. All the data regarding clinical features, laboratory findings, and treatment were reviewed independently by two experts in the field. Both univariate and multivariate logistic regression analyses were employed to identify the associated factors of LMV.

The incidence of LMV was 2.9% among hospitalized SLE patients in the current study. The most frequent symptom and physical sign of LMV were respectively abdominal pain (48, 96%) and abdominal tenderness (45, 90%). Through univariate and subsequent multivariate analysis, oral ulcer (OR, 4.25; P = 0.024), urinary tract involvement (OR, 5.23; P = 0.021), and elevated D-dimer (OR, 1.121; P = 0.008) were demonstrated to be positively associated with LMV, while percentage of lymphocytes (OR, 0.928; P = 0.004) and complement 3 (OR, 0.048; P = 0.008) were negatively correlated with LMV.

Oral ulcer, urinary tract involvement, reduced percentage of lymphocytes and complement 3, elevated D-dimer could be associated factors for LMV in SLE patients.