[Survival rates in patients with systemic lupus erythematosus]

To assess the impact of demographic and clinical factors on prognosis in patients with systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE), we examined the survival rate by lifetable analysis in 566 patients. All patients were Shanghai citizens who were diagnosed as having SLE in Huashan Hospital between 1959 and 1992. According to American Rheumatism Association's preliminary criteria. The survival rate from the time of SLE onset was 93% at 1 year, 73% at 5 years and 60% at 10 years. On univariate analysis, we found that the following factors worsened the probability of survival; male, neuropsychiatric manifestation, pleurisy-pericarditis, anemia, thrombocytopenia, lymphocytopenia, proteinuria, hematuria, urinary cast, azotemia, decreased endogenous creatinine clearance, increased cholesterol in serum, hypocomplementemia, abnormal electrocardiograph and high corticosteroid dose of treatment. On multivariate analysis, we found the four independent risk factors were male, azotemia, hypocomplementemia and high corticosteroid dose of treatment.