Late Onset Systemic Lupus Erythematosus - Clinical and Autoantibody Profile and its Comparison with Young Onset...

The aim of the study was to determine the clinical features & autoantibody profile of patients having late onset Systemic Lupus Erythematosus (SLE) and to compare with young onset SLE due to its scarce data from India.

All patients who fulfilled the 1997 ACR criteria for SLE were included. Late onset patients were >50 years of age and young onset were <50 years >18 years at the time of first SLE-related symptom. Clinical, laboratory, and autoantibody (ENA 25 & APLA) profiles were compared between the two groups using descriptive statistics and chi square test.

Of the 305 patients, 69 had late onset (75.4% females). Mean age was 59.42±6.7 years (Late onset lupus) and 33.13±8.44 years (young onset lupus). The most common symptom was arthritis (60%) followed by oral ulceration (50%), fever (43%), and serositis (37.68%). Most common antibody was SSA/Ro60 (50%) and anti-SSA/Ro52 (46%). Interstitial lung disease (ILD) (14.5%), pancytopenia (13%) and diffuse alveolar haemorrhage (4.3%) were more frequent in late onset group. Statistically significant differences were found between two groups in terms of photosensitivity (p=0.009), malar rash (p=0.005), excessive hair loss (p=0.0006), Raynaud's phenomenon (p=0.001), lymphadenopathy (p=0.01), nephritis (p=0.0007), ILD (p=0.01), anti-dsDNA (p=0.005), anti-nucleosome (p=0.01), anti-Sm (p=0.007), Ribosomes P0 (p=0.0004).

This study suggests that late onset SLE has distinct clinical and serological manifestations when compared with young onset SLE patients.