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Long-term follow-up of Iranian male patients with systemic lupus erythematosus

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Abstract

This study was conducted to investigate the long-term survival in male patients with systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE) and its predictors. The main demographic and clinical manifestations at the time of disease diagnosis were recorded retrospectively. Kaplan–Meier curves were used to calculate survival rates. Predictors of mortality were determined by backward Cox regression analysis. Eighty-four male patients with SLE were enrolled. During the 23-year study period, 11 patients died. Lupus nephritis (5 cases), infections (5 cases) and alveolar hemorrhage (1 case) were the most common causes of deaths. Overall survival rates at the end of 5, 10, 15, and 20 years after SLE disease diagnosis were 86%, 84%, 84% and 84%, respectively. In multivariate backward-regression analysis, the main determinants of death at the time of SLE diagnosis were oral ulcer (p = 0.004, HR = 7.69, 95% CI 1.92–33.33), thrombocytopenia (p = 0.012, HR = 5, 95% CI 1.41–16.66) and SLE disease activity index (SLEDAI, p = 0.05, HR = 1.08, 95% CI = 0.999–1.1). Observing oral ulcer, thrombocytopenia and high SLEDAI at the time of disease diagnosis were the main prognostic factors in male lupus patients.

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Funding

The authors declare that no funds, grants, or other support were received during the preparation of this manuscript.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Westchester Medical Center, New York Medical College, Valhalla, NY, USA

    Abbas Smiley

  2. Rheumatology Section, Department of Internal Medicine, School of Medicine, Isfahan University of Medical Sciences, Isfahan, Iran

    Mohammad Matinfar & Alimohammad Fatemi

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Contributions

Study conception and design: All authors, Data collection: Mohammad Matinfar and Alimohammad Fatemi, Data analysis: Abbas Smiley, Primary Draft of manuscript was written by Abbas Smiley and Alimohammad Fatemi and all authors commented on previous versions of the manuscript. Final manuscript: All authors read and approved it.

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Correspondence to Alimohammad Fatemi.

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Conflict of interest

The authors have no relevant financial or non-financial interests to disclose.

Ethical approval

This study was performed in line with the principles of the Declaration of Helsinki. The Regional Ethics Committee of Isfahan University of Medical Sciences approved the study protocol (2011/ 390,557).

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Informed consent was obtained from all individual participants included in the study.

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Smiley, A., Matinfar, M. & Fatemi, A. Long-term follow-up of Iranian male patients with systemic lupus erythematosus. Clin Exp Med 23, 3399–3406 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10238-022-00986-y

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