Dementia Risk Heightened in Patients With SLE

Systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE) is significantly associated with dementia, according to the results of a recent study.

The researchers conducted a cross-sectional study using the Clalit Health Care database in Israel, which includes more than 4.4 million enrollees. Participants with SLE (n=4886) were compared in a 1:5 ratio to age- and sex-matched controls (n=24,430).
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Overall, the proportion of dementia was higher among patients with SLE compared with controls (1.56% vs 0.51%, respectively). In a multivariate logistic regression analysis, SLE was significantly associated with dementia (odds ratio 1.51).

“This finding should give rise to search for SLE in patients with an ambiguous cause for dementia, especially those with an early onset cognitive decline,” the researchers concluded.

—Michael Potts

Reference:

Gendelman O, Tiosano S, Shoenfeld Y, et al. High proportions of dementia among SLE patients: A big data analysis [published online November 8, 2017]. Geriatric Psychiatry. doi:10.1002/gps.4819.