Association of the disease duration and administered therapy with metabolic syndrome in patients with systemic lupus erythematosus

Abstract

Aim of the paper: to examine the impact of disease duration and administered therapy on the development of metabolic syndrome (MetS) in patients with systemic lupus erythematous (SLE). Material and methods: This study examined 55 patients (50 females and 5 males) with the diagnosis and 49 healthy controls of similar age.  MetS was defined according to modified NCEP-ATP III diagnostic criteria, and obesity was defined by body mass index BMI>30. Results: In the group of SLE patients with MetS there were 23 individuals (41.82%). In the control group there were 10 (20.4%) patients with MetS. There were significantly more SLE patients with MetS in comparison to the controls (p=0.04). Duration of the disease in the group with MetS was significantly longer in comparison to those without MetS (15.35±10.26 vs 10.44±7.88, p=0.05). The study confirmed the presence of significant positive correlation (R=0.285,p=0.035) between the disease duration and the number of MetS parameters. In the group without MetS there were statistically significantly more patients treated with antimalarial drugs monotherapy. It has been found that the patients with MetS were treated with corticosteroid therapy longer than those without MetS (153.57±103.34 vs 114.75±83.32,p=0.129).Conclusion: Incidence of MetS is directly proportional to SLE duration. It has been shown that statistically smaller number of patients with MetS were treated with resochin  as a monotherapy in comparison to those without MetS, and  long-term CS use is associated with higher incidence of MetS in SLE patients.