Systemic Lupus Erythematosus Detected in Males in the Population of Slovakia

The objectives of this paper are to analyse the incidence of the main genderspecific clinical manifestations and initial therapy at diagnosis of systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE) in the Slovak population. An observational study of SLE men patients (n=66) seen at National Institute of Rheumatic Disease between 1992 and 2014 was performed. Demographic and clinical data were retrospectively collected from hospital records and random selection of women patients (n=50) was selected for comparison. The average age at the time of disease diagnosis in the male population was statistically significantly higher (35 ± 16.9years) as compared to the average age of women (24.0 ± 9.1years). A higher risk of developing chronic renal failure in male SLE has been reported in several studies. In our study we did not find differences between men and women in the occurrence of clinical symptoms of renal damage at the time of diagnosis of SLE. The most frequent first symptom of the disease in men was arthritis (46.9%) as compared to women where the most frequent symptom was skin manifestations (47.8%). Understanding the differences between male and female SLE will contribute to a timely diagnosis and well-targeted therapy.

Author(s): Jozef Rovensky

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