scholarly journals 2114 Severity of childhood-onset systemic lupus erythematosus: Impact of preceding and co-existing autoimmune cytopenias (protocol)

2018 ◽  
Vol 2 (S1) ◽  
pp. 27-27
Author(s):  
Ekemini Akan ◽  
Shanmuganathan Chandrakasan ◽  
Kelly Rouster-Stevens ◽  
Laurence Greenbaum ◽  
Chelsea Marion ◽  
...  

OBJECTIVES/SPECIFIC AIMS: The goals of our study are: (1) To test the hypothesis that the presence of any autoimmune cytopenia (ITP, AIHA, or ES) at time of cSLE diagnosis is associated with decreased risk of developing LN. (1b) To test the hypothesis that there is a lower risk of LN in patients with cSLE and any co-existing autoimmune cytopenia (ITP, AIHA, or ES) who had treatment with immunomodulatory or immunosuppressive therapy (intravenous immunoglobulin, corticosteroids, rituximab, or cyclophosphamide) before diagnosis of cSLE. (2) To test the hypothesis that in patients with cSLE who develop LN, the presence of any co-existing autoimmune cytopenia (ITP, AIHA, or ES) at time of cSLE diagnosis is associated with less severe LN. (3) To test the hypothesis that at the time of cSLE diagnosis, there is a lower incidence of double-stranded DNA (dsDNA) and a higher incidence of ribonucleoprotein autoantibodies in those with co-existing autoimmune cytopenias (ITP, AIHA, or ES). METHODS/STUDY POPULATION: This is a retrospective study of a large cohort of patients from the Emory Children’s Center, Children’s Healthcare of Atlanta (CHOA) satellite clinics and pediatric rheumatology inpatient services at any of the 3 CHOA hospitals (Egleston, Scottish Rite, and Hughes Spalding) with ICD 9 or ICD 10 codes corresponding to a diagnosis of SLE between January 1, 2000 and January 31, 2015. We will include patients diagnosed at age 2–16 years who meet at least 4 of the 11 American College of Rheumatology (ACR) classification criteria for SLE. We will consider these patients as having cSLE. We will exclude patients with less than 2 years of follow-up data and patients with a pre-existing diagnosis of cSLE who transferred care to our Emory/CHOA center. We will define time of diagnosis as time from initial evaluation for cSLE by a pediatric rheumatologist up to 28 days post cSLE diagnosis. We will define co-existing autoimmune cytopenia as preceding diagnosis of a primary autoimmune cytopenia or the presence of an autoimmune cytopenia at the time of initial evaluation for cSLE and up to 28 days post cSLE diagnosis. We will define AIHA as hemoglobin ≤10 g/dL with positive direct Coombs and/or reticulocytosis. We will define ITP as thrombocytopenia <100,000/mm3 and Evans syndrome as concurrent or sequential AIHA and ITP. We will define lupus nephritis (LN) as the presence of urine protein to creatinine ratio>0.5 in a patient with cSLE and/or biopsy demonstrating LN. IRB approval of the study protocol with waiver of informed consent has been obtained from the CHOA IRB. RESULTS/ANTICIPATED RESULTS: We have approximately 40 newly diagnosed cSLE patients annually; therefore, a study population of 400 patients with cSLE is possible. Therefore, assuming 50% of cSLE patients without autoimmune cytopenias have LN and 22% of cSLE patients with autoimmune cytopenias have LN, at an alpha of 0.05, we will have > 80% power to detect significant differences. We expect to show phenotypic differences in patients with co-existing autoimmune cytopenia and cSLE from other newly diagnosed cSLE patients. We expect that the presence of a co-existing autoimmune cytopenia and cSLE is associated with decreased risk of developing LN. We expect that there will be a decreased prevalence of LN in cSLE patients pretreated with immunosuppression further highlighting that earlier indicators of LN risk and early interventions are necessary. We expect to find decreased severity of LN in patients with a co-existing autoimmune cytopenia at time of cSLE diagnosis. DISCUSSION/SIGNIFICANCE OF IMPACT: Our study will be conducted on one of the largest single-center cohorts of cSLE patients. We will determine whether pediatric patients with SLE and autoimmune cytopenias have a distinct clinical or serological phenotype and less severe disease. Our results will be significant in developing hypothesis for further retrospective or prospective multi-center or large database and immunological studies to understand the relationship of each individual autoimmune cytopenia to cSLE. It will provide the necessary background for further clinical and immunological studies to identify predictive biomarkers of cSLE severity.

2011 ◽  
Vol 38 (6) ◽  
pp. 1113-1122 ◽  
Author(s):  
FREDERICK WOLFE ◽  
DANIEL J. CLAUW ◽  
MARY-ANN FITZCHARLES ◽  
DON L. GOLDENBERG ◽  
WINFRIED HÄUSER ◽  
...  

Objective.To develop a fibromyalgia (FM) survey questionnaire for epidemiologic and clinical studies using a modification of the 2010 American College of Rheumatology Preliminary Diagnostic Criteria for Fibromyalgia (ACR 2010). We also created a new FM symptom scale to further characterize FM severity.Methods.The ACR 2010 consists of 2 scales, the Widespread Pain Index (WPI) and the Symptom Severity (SS) scale. We modified these ACR 2010 criteria by eliminating the physician’s estimate of the extent of somatic symptoms and substituting the sum of 3 specific self-reported symptoms. We also created a 0–31 FM Symptom scale (FS) by adding the WPI to the modified SS scale. We administered the questionnaire to 729 patients previously diagnosed with FM, 845 with osteoarthritis (OA) or with other noninflammatory rheumatic conditions, 439 with systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE), and 5210 with rheumatoid arthritis (RA).Results.The modified ACR 2010 criteria were satisfied by 60% with a prior diagnosis of FM, 21.1% with RA, 16.8% with OA, and 36.7% with SLE. The criteria properly identified diagnostic groups based on FM severity variables. An FS score ≥ 13 best separated criteria+ and criteria− patients, classifying 93.0% correctly, with a sensitivity of 96.6% and a specificity of 91.8% in the study population.Conclusion.A modification to the ACR 2010 criteria will allow their use in epidemiologic and clinical studies without the requirement for an examiner. The criteria are simple to use and administer, but they are not to be used for self-diagnosis. The FS may have wide utility beyond the bounds of FM, including substitution for widespread pain in epidemiological studies.


Blood ◽  
2016 ◽  
Vol 128 (22) ◽  
pp. 870-870
Author(s):  
Alexandra Serris ◽  
Zahir Amoura ◽  
Benjamin Terrier ◽  
Eric Hachulla ◽  
Nathalie Costedoat-Chalumeau ◽  
...  

Abstract Introduction: Autoimmune cytopenias and mostly immune thrombocytopenia (ITP) are common manifestations of systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE). Rituximab (RTX) is used off-label in many countries for treating primary ITP and warm autoimmune hemolytic anemia (AIHA). In SLE, the place of RTX is controversial and the aim of this study was to assess the efficacy and safety of RTX for treating SLE-associated immune cytopenias. Materials and methods: A multicentre retrospective study was performed throughout the French network of adult' immune cytopenias. Patients aged >18 years, with a definite diagnosis of SLE according to the usual criteria, treated by RTX from 2005 to 2015 specifically for a SLE-associated immune cytopenia could be included. SLE-associated ITP was defined as platelet count ≤ 50 x 109L after exclusion of any other cause of thrombocytopenia. AIHA was defined by a hemoglobin level (Hb) ≤100 g/l with markers of hemolysis and a positive direct antiglobulin test. To assess treatment efficacy, the following criteria were used: for ITP, complete response (CR) and response (R) were defined according to the consensus international criteria. For AIHA, a CR was defined by a normal Hb level in the absence of recent transfusion and without ongoing haemolysis, and a response (R) by a Hb level ≥100 g/l with an increase of at least 20 g/l from baseline. CR and PR could be retained only for patients who were treated with corticosteroids and/or other immunosuppressive agents at a stable or decreasing dose. Results: Sixty-two patients, 55 women (88.7%), with a median age of 36 years [range 31-49] were included. The median duration of SLE at time of first RTX administration was 6.7 years [3.4-11.4] and the reason for using RTX was ITP in 40 cases (64.5%), AIHA in 15 cases (24.2%) and Evan's syndrome in 6 cases (9.7%). One patient was treated for a SLE-associated pure red cell aplasia. Other SLE-related manifestations were: articular (54.8%), cutaneous (49.2%), serositis (14.5%), renal (11.1%) and/or neurological (14.5%). Patients had received an average of 3.1 ± 1.3 treatments prior to RTX including steroids (100%), and hydroxychloroquine (90.3%). The overall initial response rate to RTX was 82% (87% for ITP, 86% for AIHA, and 50% for Evan's syndrome) including 59% CR. Median follow-up after the first injection of RTX was 24.6 months [12.6-61.2]. Twenty-one (41%) of the initial responders relapsed and re-treatment with RTX was successful in 94%. Severe infections occurred after rituximab in three adults with no fatal outcome. No cases of of opportunistic infections of RTX-induced neutropenia were observed. Discussion: RTX appears to be an effective and relatively safe option for the treatment of SLE-associated immune cytopenias. Disclosures Michel: Roche: Research Funding.


2019 ◽  
Vol 2 (2) ◽  
pp. 107
Author(s):  
Adidia Carina Familia ◽  
Yuliasih Yuliasih ◽  
Lita Diah Rahmawati

Introduction: SLE pathophysiology shifted to a new paradigm which emphasizing the imbalance between Th17 and Treg. IL-6 is the main cytokine believed as the regulator of the balance between Th17 and Treg which play a big part in SLE pathophysiology and disease activity. The aim of this study was to determining the correlation between serum IL-6 level and Th17/Treg ratio with SLE disease activity on SLE inpatients of RSUD Dr. Soetomo Surabaya.Methods: This cross sectional study included newly diagnosed SLE patients based on American College of Rheumatology (ACR) 1997 revised criteria and confirmed by rheumatologist. All subjects underwent the same examination and assessment such as  SLE disease activity was scored according to SLAM score, serum IL-6 level measured using ELISA, and Th17/Treg ratio where the expression Th17-Treg detected by flowcytometry method.Results: Thirty female subjects with active SLE had mean age 31,3 ± 10,46 years. The most frequent clinical manifestations were hematologic disorders and arthritis. Serum IL-6 level was significantly elevated in SLE patients compare to healthy subjects (200,61 pg/ml versus 45,9 pg/ml, p =0,028). Th17/Treg ratio were also significantly higher in SLE patients compared to healthy subjects (2,49 versus 1,20, p = 0,31). Th17/Treg ratio significantly correlated with SLE disease activity (r = 0,988; p<0,05). There were no significant correlation between serum IL-6 level with Th17/Treg ratio (r = -0,095; p>0,05) or even SLE disease activity (r = 0,066 ; p>0,05). Conclusion: Serum IL-6 level had no significant correlation with Th17/Treg ratio or SLE disease activity. We found significant correlation between Th17/Treg ratio with SLE disease activity.


2021 ◽  
Vol 10 (17) ◽  
pp. 3820
Author(s):  
Rebecca Heijke ◽  
Awais Ahmad ◽  
Martina Frodlund ◽  
Lina Wirestam ◽  
Örjan Dahlström ◽  
...  

Abnormal liver function tests are frequently observed during follow-up of patients with systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE) but data on co-existence with autoimmune liver diseases (AILD) are scarce. This retrospective study aimed to describe the prevalence of autoimmune hepatitis (AIH) and primary biliary cholangitis (PBC) among well-characterized subjects with SLE. We also evaluated whether the presence of autoantibodies to complement protein 1q (C1q) and/or ribosomal P protein (anti-ribP) are, directly or inversely, associated with AIH, as proposed in some reports. The number of screened patients was 287 (86% females), and all cases were included in a regional Swedish cohort. Each subject of the study population met the 1982 American College of Rheumatology classification criteria and/or the Fries’ diagnostic principle. By applying the simplified diagnostic AIH criteria combined with persistent transaminasemia, 40 (13.9%) cases reached at least “probable AIH”. However, merely 8 of these had been diagnosed with AIH (overall AIH prevalence 2.8%). Neither anti-C1q nor anti-ribP associated significantly with AIH. By applying the recent PBC guidelines, 6 (2.1%) cases were found, but only 3 of them had actually been diagnosed with PBC and one additional subject was not identified by the guidelines (overall PBC prevalence 1.4%). Compared to prevalence data from the general Swedish population, both AIH and PBC were highly overrepresented in our study population. The sensitivity of the diagnostic AIH criteria was impeccable but the specificity was less impressive, mainly due to positive ANA and hypergammaglobulinemia. Based on our findings, among subjects with SLE, the AIH criteria are less useful and liver biopsy combined with detection of other AILD-associated autoantibodies should be performed.


2019 ◽  
Vol 1 (9) ◽  
pp. 53-57
Author(s):  
T. N. Gavva ◽  
L. V. Kuzmenkova ◽  
Yu. N. Fedulaev ◽  
T. V. Pinchuk ◽  
D. D. Kaminer ◽  
...  

A case of lung damage in systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE) in a 33-year-old woman is described. This case is of clinical interest due to the complexity of diagnosis due to the fact that SLE is a disease with diverse clinical manifestations involving many organs and systems, which often makes it difficult to timely recognize the onset of the disease. SLE still remains a challenge and requires special attention to the patient s history, clinical and laboratory parameters of the patient, as well as specific immunological examinations.


2019 ◽  
Vol 9 (02) ◽  
Author(s):  
Haider S Al-Hadad ◽  
Aqeel Abbas Matrood ◽  
Maha Abdalrasool Almukhtar ◽  
Haider Jabur Kehiosh ◽  
Riyadh Muhi Al-Saegh

Background: Systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE) is an autoimmune disease. Few biomarkers for SLE have been validated and widely accepted for the laboratory follow-up of inflammatory activity. In SLE patients, with lupus nephritis (LN), complement activation leads to fluctuation of serum C3 and C4 that are frequently used as clinicalm biomarker of disease activity in SLE. Patients and Methods: In this study the number of patients were 37, seven patients were excluded for incomplete data collection, 28 were females ,2 were males. The duration of the study is two years from 2015 to 2017. Patients were considered to have SLE and LN according to American College of Rheumatology (ACR) criteria, and International Society of Nephrology/ Renal Pathology Society (ISN/RPS). All patients were evaluated withm clinical presentation, laboratory investigations. Our patients underwent kidney biopsy according to standard procedure by Kerstin Amann, and their tissue specimens were studied in the laboratory with light microscope (LM) and immunofluorescence microscope reagents. The relationship between the serological markers and immunofluorescence deposits in kidney biopsy of all patients were studied using the statistical analysis of Pearson correlation and single table student's T test. A P value 0.05 was considered statistically significant. Results: The granular pattern of IF deposits was present in all LN patients, and in more than two third of patients these IF deposits presented in glomerular, tubular, and mesangium sites. While less than one third of patients had IF deposits in the mesangium only. There was no statistically significant correlation between serum ANA, anti-dsDNA, and IF deposits of different types. There was significant correlation between serum C3 and C4 hypocomplementemia and IgG immune deposits in kidney biopsy, and there was significant relationship between serum C3 hypocomplementemia and full house immunofluorescence (FHIF) deposits inm kidney biopsy.Conclusions:Immunofluorescence deposits is mainly granular pattern in LN patients. There was no significant association between serum ANA, anti-dsDNA, and immune deposits in kidney tissue. Immunofluorescence deposits of IgG type correlates significantly with serum C3 and C4 hypocomplemetemia, and these immune deposits in association with low complement levels correlates with LN flare. There was significant correlation between C3 hypocomplementemia and FHIF.


Author(s):  
Fahima Hossain ◽  
Mohammad Delwer Hossain Hawlader ◽  
Dipak Kumar Mitra ◽  
Mohammad Hayatun Nabi ◽  
Md. Mujibur Rahman

Abstract Background Neuropsychiatric systemic lupus erythematosus (NPSLE) is well known for its varying presentations and poor outcomes, but little is evident about its distribution and characteristics among the Bangladeshi population. This study aimed to assess the pattern and prevalence of neuropsychiatric symptoms in female systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE) patients of Bangladesh. A retrospective study was conducted at a tertiary care hospital in Dhaka, Bangladesh, between January and December 2018. One hundred female SLE patients were included in the study purposively. Data were collected on sociodemographic and clinical characteristics of diagnosed SLE cases visiting the SLE clinic and indoor medicine department. Neuropsychiatric (NP) syndromes were defined according to the widely accepted American College of Rheumatology (ACR) nomenclature and case definitions. Results A total of 244 NP events were identified in fifty-five patients. Headache was the most frequent symptom (55%), followed by cognitive dysfunction (50%), anxiety (49%), psychosis (43%), seizure (23%), depression (17%), and cerebrovascular disease (ischemic type, 7%). The NP manifestations were more prevalent among urban residents (58.2%), younger patients (41.8%), and patients with graduate-level education (34.5%). Besides, young age at diagnosis (p = 0.038), Raynaud’s phenomenon (p = 0.015), other organ involvement (p < 0.001), and time of NPSLE development (p < 0.001) were found to be significantly associated with the development of these manifestations. Conclusion NP damage is prevalent among Bangladeshi female SLE patients (55%) with headache and cognitive dysfunction being the most common symptoms. Routine screening for neuropsychiatric symptoms among suspected SLE cases and further evaluation with a larger population are warranted.


2021 ◽  
Vol 80 (Suppl 1) ◽  
pp. 1038.2-1039
Author(s):  
M. Kaleda ◽  
M. Krylov ◽  
I. Nikishina

Background:Systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE) is a chronic autoimmune disease with a significant genetic predisposition. Recent studies have identified STAT4 (signal transducers and transcription activators 4) as a susceptibility gene for SLE.Objectives:To investigate the hypothesis of the association of STAT4 rs7574865 G/T polymorphism with the predisposition to SLE in children and its relationship with some of SLE manifestations.Methods:The case-control pilot study included 143 children (39 with SLE and 103 healthy unrelated volunteers as a control group). Diagnosis of SLE was based on 2012 SLICC criteria. STAT4 rs7574865 G/T polymorphism was investigated using allele-specific real-time polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR).Results:The group of pts with SLE consisted of 29 girls and 10 boys, with an average age of 11.8±3.7 years (from 3 to 17 years) and an average disease duration of 4.1±2.4 years. 79.5% pts had acute cutaneous lupus at the onset, 46.1% - nonscarring alopecia, 71.8% - arthritis, 23.1% - oral and nasal ulcers, 23.1% - serositis, 43.6% - renal involvement, 35.9% –neuropsychiatric disorders. Leucopenia/lymphopenia was found in 71.8% of pts, thrombocytopenia – in 23,1%. ANA were detected in 100% pts, anti-dsDNA – in 79.5%, anti-Sm – in 31.6%, antiphospholipid antibodies - in 7,3%, hypocomplementemia – in 61.5%, positive direct Coombs test – in 35.9 %. Macrophage activation syndrome at the onset was documented in 15.4 % of pts. The distribution of rs7574865 genotypes in the control group showed no significant deviations from the Hardy-Weinberg equilibrium. The distribution of genotype frequencies among pts had statistically significant differences compared to the control (χ2=12.95, p=0.0015): GG-30.8% and 63.1% (p=0.001), GT-56.4% and 33.0% (p=0.018), TT-12.8% and 3.9% (p=0.114), GT+TT - 69.2% and 36.9% (p=0.0005). The frequency of the mutant STAT 4 allele T (polymorphism), was significantly higher in the SLE group than in the control group (41% and 20.4%, respectively; p=0.0007). We identified an association of the T allele with some clinical, laboratory, and immunological disorders in SLE: arthritis (OR 3.9, p=0.0002), acute cutaneous lupus (OR 2.47, p=0.003), nonscarring alopecia (OR 3.12, p=0.002), renal involvement (OR 2.42, p=0.022), leucopenia (OR 2.72, p=0.003), thrombocytopenia (OR 4.88, p=0.002), anti-dsDNA (OR 2.82, p=0.0006), hypocomplementemia (OR 2.34, p=0.012), positive direct Coombs test (OR 3.38, p=0.002).Conclusion:Our pilot study confirmed that the STAT4 rs7574865 G/T polymorphism was associated with the risk of SLE in children and some of SLE manifestations.Disclosure of Interests:None declared


2021 ◽  
Vol 80 (Suppl 1) ◽  
pp. 1039.2-1040
Author(s):  
N. Dostanko ◽  
V. Yagur ◽  
R. Goncharova ◽  
E. Siniauskaya ◽  
T. Zybalova

Background:Systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE) has a significant genetic predisposition. Many genetic variants of susceptibility to SLE have been published and analyzed, but the clinical and functional significance of the various genotypes has not yet been clearly defined [1].Objectives:To estimate the association between some of non-HLA gene polymorphisms such as STAT4 rs7574865, RUNX1 rs9979383, IL6 rs1800795, IL6R rs2228145, IL6R rs4845618 and susceptibility to SLE in Belarusian population as well as some disease manifestations.Methods:We examined 383 healthy blood donors and 54 SLE patients (18-72 years old, median age 35) classified according to the 1997 American College of Rheumatology (ACR) revised classification criteria [2]. Deoxyribonucleic acid was extracted from peripheral blood samples by phenol-chloroform method. Genotyping was performed by real-time PCR with fluorescent probes. Differences of distribution of all the single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) genotypes and their associations with secondary antiphospholipid syndrom (APS) and lupus arthritis were analyzed using Pearson χ2 (χ2) and two-way Fisher exact test (F, p2-t). Diagnostic odds ratio (dOR), likelihood ratio of positive (LR +) and negative (LR –) tests and corresponding 95% confidence intervals (CI) were also calculated.Results:We revealed significant difference in STAT4 rs7574865 genotypes in SLE patients and healthy donors (χ2=8,27, р=0,016) with significant increase of ТТ genotype frequency in SLE patients vs healthy donors (χ2=6.83 p=0.009; p2-t =0.020; dOR=3.78 (CI95% 1.36-10.55); LR+ =3.44 (CI95% 1.35-8.71); LR– =0.91 (CI95% 0.83-0.98)). Lupus arthritis was more common in risk TT-genotype SLE carriers than in other SLE patients (χ2=5.902 p=0.015; p2-t =0.027).We revealed significant increase of СТ genotype (RUNX1 rs9979383) in healthy donors vs SLE patients (χ2=4.14; p=0.042; dOR=0.53 (CI95% 0.29-0.98); LR+ =0.69 (CI95% 0.45-0.99); LR– =1.3 (CI95% 1.01-1,56)). Lupus arthritis was more common in SLE СТ-genotype carriers than in other SLE patients (χ2=4.66 p=0.031; p2-t =0.058).Significant differences in IL6 rs1800795, IL6R rs2228145 and IL6R rs4845618 genotypes distribution between studied groups were not found (χ2, p=0.427, p=0.559 and p=0.407, correspondingly) but GG-genotype (IL6 rs1800795) carriership in SLE patients was associated with increased APS frequency (χ2=4.45, p=0.035; dOR=0.19 (CI95% 0.04-0.9); LR+ =0.28 (CI95% 0.07-0.93); LR– =1.41 (CI95% 1.03-1.64).Conclusion:Our data suggest the susceptibility to SLE in ТТ genotype of STAT4 rs7574865 polymorphism, protective role of СТ genotype of RUNX1 rs9979383 for SLE and association between GG-genotype of IL6 rs1800795 and APS in SLE patients in Belarusian population. Lupus arthritis was associated with ТТ genotype of STAT4 rs7574865 and СТ genotype of RUNX1 rs9979383.References:[1]Chen L, Morris DL, Vyse TJ. Genetic advances in systemic lupus erythematosus: an update. Curr Opin Rheumatol 2017;29:423–33.[2]Hochberg MC. Updating the American College of Rheumatology Revised Criteria for the classification of Systemic Lupus Erythematosus. Arthritis Rheum 1997;40:1725.Disclosure of Interests:None declared


2020 ◽  
Vol 9 (3) ◽  
pp. 712 ◽  
Author(s):  
Erkan Demirkaya ◽  
Sezgin Sahin ◽  
Micol Romano ◽  
Qing Zhou ◽  
Ivona Aksentijevich

Systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE) is a clinically and genetically heterogeneous autoimmune disease. The etiology of lupus and the contribution of genetic, environmental, infectious and hormonal factors to this phenotype have yet to be elucidated. The most straightforward approach to unravel the molecular pathogenesis of lupus may rely on studies of patients who present with early-onset severe phenotypes. Typically, they have at least one of the following clinical features: childhood onset of severe disease (<5 years), parental consanguinity, and presence of family history for autoimmune diseases in a first-degree relative. These patients account for a small proportion of patients with lupus but they inform considerable knowledge about cellular pathways contributing to this inflammatory phenotype. In recent years with the aid of new sequencing technologies, novel or rare pathogenic variants have been reported in over 30 genes predisposing to SLE and SLE-like diseases. Future studies will likely discover many more genes with private variants associated to lupus-like phenotypes. In addition, genome-wide association studies (GWAS) have identified a number of common alleles (SNPs), which increase the risk of developing lupus in adult age. Discovery of a possible shared immune pathway in SLE patients, either with rare or common variants, can provide important clues to better understand this complex disorder, it’s prognosis and can help guide new therapeutic approaches. The aim of this review is to summarize the current knowledge of the clinical presentation, genetic diagnosis and mechanisms of disease in patents with lupus and lupus-related phenotypes.


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