Cutaneous lupus erythematosus (CLE) and systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE) were associated with a significantly increased risk of cardiovascular disease (CVD) and all-cause mortality, a recent study found. Local and chronic inflammation may be the driver of low-grade systemic inflammation, researchers noted. They conducted a cohort study of a population aged ≥18 and ≤100 years followed from 1997 to 2011 by linkage of nationwide registries. A total of 3,282 patients with CLE and 3,747 patients with SLE were identified and compared with 5,513,739 controls. They found:

• The overall hazard ratio (HR) for composite CVD endpoint was 1.31 for CLE and 2.05 for SLE.

• The corresponding HRs for all-cause mortality were 1.32 for CLE and 2.21 for SLE.

Citation: Hesselvig JH; Ahlehoff O, Dreyer L, Gislason G, Kofoed K. Cutaneous lupus erythematosus and systemic lupus erythematosus are associated with clinically significant cardiovascular risk: A Danish nationwide cohort study. [Published online ahead of print May 27, 2016]. Lupus. doi:10.1177/0961203316651739.