İnvestigation of polyautoimunity in patients with sistemic lupus erythematosus

İn our study, it was aimed to evaluate the frequency of polyautoimunity in patients with SLE diagnosed in Hacettepe Rheumatology Department, their clinical findings and comorbidities, laboratory values and autoantibody profile, it's effect on prognosis, and risk factors. Three hundred ten (88.1% female) patients who applied to our outpatient clinic between December 2021 and August 2022 were included in the study. Of these, 152 (49.0%) had polyautoimunity. The mean age of the patients was 42.98 (14,3) years. The mean age of the diagnosis of SLE was 31,08 (14,0) and the mean disease duration was 148,4 (97,3) month. Patients with polyautoimunity were older (45,21)±14,21) vs 40,84 (±14,26), p=0,007)) and were diagnosed with SLE at an older age (33,26 (±13,89) vs 28,98 (13,92), p=0,007) than the control group patients without polyautoimunity. The most common autoimmune diseaeses were AFAS 55 (17,7%), AİTH 36 (17,7%), SS 36 (11,6%) and RA 15 (4,8%), respectively. Forty-two (13,5%) patients had 2 or more additional autoimmune diseases. Overlap syndrome was detected in 56 (18,1%) patients. İn the polyautoimmunity group, compared to the normal group, aPL antibodies (71 (46,7%) vs 36 (22,8%), p=0,000), Ro/SsA (50 (33,1%) vs 28 (17,7%), p=0,001), anti- La/SsB (16 (10,5%) vs 9 (5,7%), p=0,042) were more common, while Anti-RNP antibodies (15 (9,9%) vs 27 (17,1%), p=0,011) and low complement (95 (62,5%) vs 124 (78,5%), p=0,001) were less common. SLEDAİ-2K disease activity was found to be higher in patients in the polyautoimmunity group. According to multivariate analyses, having the family history increases the risk of the polyautoimmunity 2.5 times (OR: 2.5 CI: 1,4-4,5, p=0,002). apL positivity (OR: 3,8 CI: 2,0-7,3, p=0,000) and hypertension (OR: 2,0, CI: 1,0-3,9, p=0,049) are also important risk factors. On the other hand, it was observed that polyautoimmunity was 50% less in patients with hypocomplementemia and 30% less in patients with renal involvement.