What do lupus specialists believe about managing conventional cardiovascular risk factors in patients with systemic lupus erythematosus?

摘要

Sir-The incidence of coronary heart disease (CHD) and stroke is raised in patients with systemic lupus ery-thematosus (SLE). Conventional risk factors such as diabetes mellitus, smoking, lipid levels and hypertension do not explain all of this increased risk.Several authors have argued that in this population of patients known to be at high risk of CHD and stroke, it is imperative to manage all known risk factors proac-tively. Most published guidelines for deciding when to use drugs in primary prevention of cardiovascular disease rely on calculations of absolute rather than relative risk of CHD and stroke. Since many patients with SLE are young women, these absolute risks are low, even when relative risks in comparison to healthy young women are high.