PS3:48 The incidence of cardiovascular events in italian patients with systemic lupus erythematosus is lower than in north european and american cohorts: implication of disease–associated and traditional ris

Background Previous study from our group have pointed out a lower number of cardiovascular (CV) events in Italian patients with Systemic Lupus Erythematosus (SLE) than in North European and American ones. This study aims to assess the incidence of the first CV event in a large, multicenter, Italian cohort of patients with SLE and search for differences in disease and traditional risk factors among distinct cohorts. Methods Clinical charts of SLE patients consecutively admitted to five Italian rheumatologic centres from November 1 st 2000 and December 31 st 2015 were retrospectively studied. Patients selected were free of CV events at baseline. CV incidence rate was expressed as the number of events in the cohort divided by the total number of years at risk. CV cumulative incidence were evaluated as the proportion of patients who experienced a new CV event over the follow up period. Our incidence was compared with that detected in the Italian general population and those reported in SLE cohorts from other countries. Results The median duration of follow-up was 6 years (IQR=3–11). During the observational period, 37(cumulative incidence=7.2%) patients had a first episode of CV event with an incidence rate of 10.1/1000 person-years i.e 12 times higher than in the general population. The CV incidence rate and cumulative incidence detected in our Italian cohort was lower than those from North European and American cohorts. The Italian cohort differed from other SLE cohorts in some traditional risk factors (smoke, hypertension, dyslipidemia) and treatment with aspirin and hydroxychloroquine. Conclusion Our results confirmed that Italian lupus patients suffer a high incidence of CV disease compared with general population. However, this incidence was lower than that detected in North European and American lupus cohorts