INCREASED RISK OF DEMENTIA IN PATIENTS WITH SYSTEMIC LUPUS ERYTHEMATOSUS

Background: Systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE) is a chronic inflammatory disease that can affect any organ of the body. Nervous system involvement of SLE lead to a variety of neurologic and psychiatric manifestations, which are called neuropsychiatric lupus. Cognitive dysfunction may appear as part of neuropsychiatric lupus. There are several papers on the increase in dementia risk in SLE patients, but data are not sufficient and there is little data on whether SLE affects dementia differently depending on the dementia subtype. Objectives: We evaluate dementia incidence and risk in SLE patients in a nationwide population-based cohort and determine whether the risk is different for each dementia subtype. Methods: We identified patients aged 40 years or more, with systemic lupus erythematosus between 2008 and 2014 using the database of the National Health Insurance Service (NHIS) of south Korea. Patients who had previously been diagnosed with dementia were excluded from the study. A total of 11,288 SLE patients and 56,440 control subjects with a 1:5 age- and sex-matching were included in the study. The primary outcome of the study was incident dementia, which was defined by an ICD-10 code and the use of dementia medications. Kaplan-Meier curves and Cox proportional hazards regression analysis were used for the analysis. Results: The incidence rate of dementia was higher in SLE cohort (3.90 per 1,000 person-years) than control cohort (2.73 per 1,000 person-years). Incidence rates of Alzheimer disease and vascular dementia were also higher in SLE cohort than control. SLE patients had a higher risk of dementia compared to control cohorts without SLE (crude hazard ratio 1.43, 95% CI 1.25-1.63). In patients with SLE, the risk of Alzheimer’s disease was 1.4 times higher and the risk of vascular dementia 1.6 times higher than non-SLE control. Conclusion: In this nationwide population-based cohort study, SLE patients had a 1.4-fold higher risk of incident dementia compared to patients without SLE. Further studies are warranted to identify mechanisms of increased risk of dementia in SLE patients. Monitoring of dementia incidence in SLE patients is needed in clinical practice. Disclosure of Interests: None declared