Data on the long-term outcome of patients with childhood-onset SLE (cSLE) are scarce. Aims of this study were to describe the long-term outcomes of cSLE and to identify factors associated with the development of damage and persistent disease activity.
We conducted a retrospective multicentre study using data from the PEDIALUP registry of the Juvenile Inflammatory Rheumatism (JIR) cohort database. Demographic characteristics, clinical manifestations, laboratory, radiological, histological and treatment data were collected from medical records during follow-up.
A total of 138 patients with cSLE, diagnosed between 1971 and 2015, were included. With a median follow-up of 15.4 [9.6-22.4] years, 51% of patients had a SLICC-damage index (DI) score ≥1 at last follow-up with the musculoskeletal, cutaneous, renal, neurological and cardiovascular damage being the most common manifestations. The proportion of patients with a SLICC-DI score ≥1 increased significantly with the duration of the follow-up (P < 0.001). On multivariate analysis, duration of follow-up was associated with increased risk of cumulative damage (OR 1.08, 95% CI 1.01, 1.15, P = 0.035). At the last visit, 34% of patients still had active disease with a SLEDAI score of ≥6. On multivariate analysis, sub-Saharan African ethnicity was associated with 7-fold increased odds of having active disease at the last visit compared with Caucasians (OR 7.44, 95% CI 2.24, 24.74, P = 0.0002).
The prevalence of damage remains high in patients with cSLE even when the diagnosis of cSLE has been made in the recent decades.