[The clinical characteristics of systemic lupus erythematosus associated with coronary artery disease].

Objective: To summarize the clinical characteristics of systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE) associated with coronary artery disease (CHD).

Methods: This is a retrospective analysis. We studied the traditional cardiovascular risk factors, first onset of cardiac events, diagnosis, treatment and activity of the disease in 11 SLE patients with CHD. The results were statistically analyzed using independent-samples test and Fisher's exact test.

Results: (1) SLE patients with CHD had an average age of (53.9 +/- 8.1) years old. (2) The mean number of CHD risk factors per patient was 1.3 +/- 0.8. (3) The level of lipids was significantly elevated after therapy with corticosteroids (The P values for TC, LDL-C, HDL-C and TG were 0.013, 0.003, 0.016 and 0.006, respectively). (4) The SLEDAI was 12.0 +/- 10.3 when the first cardiac event happened. (5) SLE patients with CHD often had severe lesions of the coronary artery, manifested as diffuse stenosis and severe calcification.

Conclusions: Conventional CHD risk factors cannot fully account for premature CHD in SLE patients. SLE patients with CHD often had severe lesions of the coronary artery and poor prognosis, so we should treat it as early as possible to delay the progress of CHD and use non-invasive examinations for early diagnosis in order to improve the prognosis.