Organ Damage in Men with Lupus Appears to Develop Sooner and More Severely
American College of Rheumatology 2006 Annual Meeting, Poster Session A, November 12, 2006, Presentation 557, Poster Board 557
Accelerated damage accrual among male systemic lupus erythematosus patients: Results from a multiethnic US cohort
A number of studies have noted differences in the way lupus affects men and women. Research by Rosa M. Andrade, MD, a post-doctoral fellow at the University of Alabama, Birmingham, and her colleagues has provided further evidence of the impact of gender on lupus development and outcomes.
Their research took advantage of the diversity of people in the LUMINA (Lupus in Minorities: Nature vs. Nurture) study, which has for ten years been following a multiethnic patient population of African Americans, Caucasians, and Hispanics with lupus. The study group had 63 men with lupus, representing 10.2 percent of the total population from all ethnic groups. The men and women in the study were about the same age on average. The men were more likely to be Caucasians, smokers, and alcohol drinkers. They were more likely to have a positive test for lupus anticoagulant (LAC), which is associated with some risk for blood-clotting complications. They were also more likely to have kidney involvement than women with lupus.
As the study progressed, men seemed to pick up more symptoms of lupus in a shorter amount of time and have worse damage to their organs than women. Dr. Andrade’s group concluded that, though men and women with lupus appeared similar in the types of complications that they might get, men developed more problems sooner and were more likely to develop organ damage. This needs to be addressed, possibly by more aggressive preventive treatments in men.
In addition to these important findings about gender differences, this research further demonstrates the value of long-term, large population studies like the LUMINA Study as essential resources in helping improve our understanding of the causes and development of lupus.
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