Increased Comorbidity Burden in Lupus African Americans Save
Researchers from Vanderbilt University Medical Center used electronic health records (EHR) to perform a phenome-wide study comparing African American (AA-SLE) and Caucasian (C-SLE) with systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE) and found more comorbidities in AA-SLE, especially renal, cardiovascular, and infectious diseases.
Among 2.8 million EHR de-identified subjects were 270 AA-SLE, 715 C- SLE and and 1425 matched African American controls.
They found that AA-SLE patients had more comorbidities in every organ system compared to C-SLE, including more:
- hypertension odds ratio (OR) = 4.25
- renal dialysis OR = 10.90
- pneumonia OR = 3.57
When AA-SLE were compared to the African American matched controls without SLE, the found more:
- renal failure OR = 9.55
- hypertensive heart and renal disease OR = 8.08,
African Americans with SLE have an increased comorbidity burden that requires close monitoring and preventative strategies.
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The author has no conflicts of interest to disclose related to this subject
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