The purpose of this study was to identify whether markers of subclinical atherosclerosis may be predicted by traditional and non-traditional CVD risk factors in SLE patients. Prevalence and age distribution of subclinical CVD in African-American versus non-AA SLE subjects was also examined.
SLE patients were recruited from participating outpatient rheumatology practices. All subjects had IMT assessed by B-mode ultrasound and CAC studied utilizing multi-slice CAT scan. In multivariable regression models, increasing age was the strongest predictor of having CAC>0, IMT in the upper quartile (uq-IMT), or with increasing mean IMT (mIMT) value. Other significant variables included gender for CAC>0, higher waist-hip ratio for higher mIMT, and lower MPO values for uq-IMT. Mean IMT was more likely to be higher in younger AA than non-AAs. There was a group of non-AA patients in the >90th % of CAC that were younger than patients with lower CAC percentiles.