Objective: To investigate the association between the presence of aPL and/or LA and all-cause mortality among end-stage renal disease (ESRD) patients with and without SLE.
Methods: We included ESRD patients >18 years old followed at an urban tertiary care centre between 1 January 2006 and 31 January 2014 who had aPL measured at least once after initiating haemodialysis. All SLE patients met ACR/SLICC criteria. APL/LA+ was defined as aCL IgG or IgM >40 IU, anti-β2glycoprotein1 IgG or IgM >40 IU or LA+. Deaths as at 31 January 2014 were captured in the linked National Death Index data. Time to death was defined from the first aPL measurement.
Results: We included 34 SLE ESRD and 64 non-SLE ESRD patients; 30 patients died during the study period. SLE ESRD patients were younger [40.4 (12.5) vs 51.9 (18.1) years, P = 0.001] and more were women (88.2% vs 54.7%, P < 0.001) vs non-SLE ESRD patients. The frequency of aPL/LA+ was 24% in SLE and 13% in non-SLE ESRD (P = 0.16). Median (inter-quartile range) follow-up time was 1.6 (0.3-3.5) years in SLE and 1.4 (0.4-3.2) years in non-SLE, P = 0.74. The adjusted hazard ratio (HR) for all-cause mortality for SLE patients who were aPL/LA+ vs aPL/LA- was 9.93 (95% CI 1.33, 74.19); the adjusted HR for non-SLE aPL/LA+ vs aPL/LA- was 0.77 (95% CI 0.14, 4.29).
Conclusion: SLE ESRD patients with aPL/LA+ had higher all-cause mortality risk than SLE ESRD patients without these antibodies, while the effects of aPL/LA on mortality were comparable among non-SLE ESRD patients.
Keywords: antiphospholipid antibodies; end stage; haemodialysis; lupus nephritis; renal disease; systemic lupus erythematosus.
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