MONDAY, July 17 (HealthDay News) -- Serum total cholesterol level is associated with kidney failure and renal failure-related death in patients with systemic lupus erythematosus, according to a report in the July issue of Arthritis & Rheumatism.
Paul R. Fortin, M.D., and colleagues from the Arthritis Centre of Excellence at Toronto Western Hospital in Ontario, Canada, used prospectively collected data on 1,060 patients with systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE) to determine the effect of serum total cholesterol level on renal deterioration, end-stage renal disease, and death in this population.
The investigators found that total serum cholesterol was associated with a hazard ratio of 1.17 for renal deterioration and 1.33 for renal failure-associated death. Other predictors of renal failure, end-stage renal disease and death were serum creatinine levels, proteinuria, clinical SLE activity score, and corticosteroid dose.
"Our analyses lend support to the hypothesis that hypercholesterolemia contributes to renal disease in patients with SLE," the authors state. "The predictive value of an elevated cholesterol level on renal function, as suggested by the findings of this study and its predecessor, cannot be discounted and should lead to future studies to establish whether dyslipidemia has a pathologic role in renal disease in patients with SLE."
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