Risk Factors for Left Ventricular Systolic Dysfunction in Patient with SLE

 

Risk factors for subclinical left ventricular dysfunction from multivariate analysis:

(1) duration of SLE

(2) frequency of flares as indicated by the SLEDAI score

(3) arterial stiffness as indicated by arterial compliance

Parameter	Finding	Points
duration of SLE	<= 10 years	0
	> 10 years	1
SLEDAI score	0	0
	>= 1	1
arterial stiffness	low	0
	increased	1

 

where:

• A SLEDAI >= 1 indicates any finding within the past 10 days.

• It might be interesting to see if an elevated CRP could be used to replace the SLEDAI.

• Asking for frequent flares might also be easier than calculating the SLEDAI.

 

number of risk factors for subclinical left ventricular dysfunction =

= SUM(points for all 3 parameters)

 

Interpretation:

• minimum number of risk factors: 0

• maximum number of risk factors: 3

• The greater the number of risk factors the greater the risk for left ventricular dysfunction.

• A patient identified as being at risk should have tissue Doppler echocardiography to monitor cardiac function.