الفهرس 
Acknowledgment.Only 14 pages are availabe for public view
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Abstract
The aim of this work is to detect the presence of apoptotic endothelial cells in the peripheral blood of patients with SLE compared with controls and to correlate endothelial cells apoptosis with endothelial/vascular dysfunction and disease activity.
This case-control observational study was performed at Rheumatology, Rehabilitation, Physical Medicine, Nephrology, Radio-diagnosis, and Clinical Pathology Departments of Suez Canal University Hospital. The included study populations were divided into two groups; 32 patients of SLE meeting the ACR criteria and 32 healthy volunteers matching age and gender of the study group. They were recruited from the secretarial and support staff at the Suez Canal University Hospital, as well as from friends of the patients. Data collected throughout history, basic clinical examination, laboratory investigations (routine and special), imaging results (duplex/ color Doppler ultrasonography) and outcome disease activity measures and vascular risk factors assessment.
The mean age of SLE group was matching the control group without statistically significant difference. Both groups were matched regarding gender. Female to male ration was up to 15 to 1 in SLE group. There was significantly higher frequency of positive family history of CAD in SLE group than in the control group (25% versus 6.2%, respectively) (p<0.05).
There was significantly higher mean values of WHR and BMI in SLE group than in the control group (p<0.05). There was significantly higher mean values of SBP, DBP, and MAP in SLE group than in the control group (p<0.05).
There was significantly higher prevalence of HTN in SLE group than in the control group (28.1% versus 3.1%, respectively) (p<0.05). The mean disease duration was 5±1.4 years. The frequencies of lupus nephritis, high ESR, high CRP, hypocomplementemia of C3, hypocomplementemia of C4, positive ANA, positive dsDNA, proteinuria, administration of NSAIDs, steroids, HCQ and azathioprine were 12.5%, 37.5%, 18.8%,18.8%, 25%, 93.8%, 53.1%, 9.4%, 93.8%, 81.3%, 62.5%, and 50.0%, respectively.
About 63% of SLE patients had active disease according to SLEDAI, while 75% of them had mild to moderate flare according to SELENA. There were significantly higher frequencies of leucopenia and lymphopenia in SLE group than in the control group (25% and 18% versus 6.2% and 0%, respectively) (p<0.05). Also, there were significantly lower mean values of RBCs and PLT in SLE group than in the control group (p<0.05).
There were significantly higher mean values of total and LDL cholesterol in SLE group than in the control group (p<0.05), while there were insignificantly lower mean values of HDL cholesterol and higher mean values of TG in SLE group than in the control group (p>0.05).
The significant vascular risk factors in SLE were positive family history of CAD (OR=5, p=0.039), HTN (OR=12.1, p=0.006), total cholesterol (OR=3, p=0.004), high LDL cholesterol (OR=8.3, p<0.001), overweight/obese (OR=2.4, p=0.01), WHR (OR=5, p=0.039), and global risk (OR=2.9, p=0.019).
There were significantly higher mean values of IMT, PSV, RI, PI, PWV, and augmentation index in SLE group than in the control group (p<0.05).