Neutropenia in systemic lupus erythematosus

Abstract EN

Background : systemic Lupus Erythematous (SLE) is a multisystem disease of unclear etiology.

Neutropenia occurs in approximately half of SLE patients.

Infection is a major cause of morbidity and mortality in those SLE patients.

Multiple causes have been involved in the increased susceptibility to infection in such patients.

Objective : this study was conducted to document the frequency of neutropenia and its implication on infection risk among our SLE patients.

Methodology : Retrospectively, we studied 61 SLE patients from January 2000 to December 2005.

Information collected included age, sex, nationality, absolute neutrophil count and history of infection before treatment.

Results : Sixty one patients were found to have SLE, 91.8 % were females, while males were 8.2 % with a female to male ratio of 11.2:1.

The mean age of SLE patients was 26.27 years with a SD 10.06.

Neutropenia was found in 47.4 % of patients, 69 % of them had moderate to severe type.

Infections were documented in 31.1 % of SLE patients, 63.1% of them were neutropenia.

Urinary tracts followed by chest were the two main sites for infection.

Conclusion : in the current study, neutropenia is common among our SLE patients.

Infection was demonstrated in about one third of the cases, the majority of them were neutropenia.

However, neutropenia is one among multiple causes for decreased resistance to infection in untreated active SLE patients.