FRIDAY, Dec. 17 (HealthDay News) -- Children and adults with
kidney disease caused by the autoimmune disease lupus have a higher
risk of death than those with other types of kidney disease,
researchers have found.
Systemic lupus erythematosus, commonly known as lupus, affects
one or more parts of the body, such as the eyes, joints, skin,
heart and kidneys. Up to 80 percent of children with lupus suffer
kidney damage.
In the new study, researchers analyzed data from more than
98,000 children and adults with various types of end-stage kidney
disease, concluding that lupus was a consistent predictor of death
from all causes, regardless of the person's age.
Children with lupus kidney disease were no more likely than
adults to die from it, but both children and adults with lupus
kidney disease were more likely to die for any reason than were
people with kidney disease caused by something other than lupus,
the study reported.
Specifically, the researchers found that children with lupus
kidney disease were 2.4 times more likely to die than children with
other forms of kidney disease, and adults with lupus kidney disease
were 1.7 times more likely to die than adults with other forms of
end-stage kidney disease.
Heart disease was the most common cause of death among children
and adults with lupus kidney disease, the findings indicated.
"What we may be seeing here is a double whammy of cardiovascular damage -- on one hand, there's the damage caused by lupus itself, further compounded by the resulting kidney disease," the study's lead investigator, Dr. Sangeeta Sule, a pediatric nephrologist and lupus expert at Johns Hopkins Children's Center, said in a Hopkins news release.
Heart monitoring is critical in all people with kidney disease,
and even more so in people with lupus kidney disease, the
researchers stated.
The study is published online and in the January 2011 print
issue of
Pediatric Nephrology.
More information
The U.S. National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney
Diseases explains
how lupus can affect the kidneys.