Inflammatory expression profiles in monocyte-to-macrophage differentiation in patients with systemic lupus erythematosus and relationship with atherosclerosis

Table 3 Clinical characteristics of patients stratified by microarray clusters using 344-gene atherosclerosis signature

	Microarray cluster	1	2	3	4
Demographics	Age	45.8 ± 9.3	46.9 ± 5.4	49.0 ± 7.4	45.0 ± 13.0
Demographics	Disease duration	13.6 ± 9.6	21.2 ± 3.31	17.3 ± 8.8	13.1 ± 9.2
SLE disease activity/damage	SLEDAI-2 K	8.7 ± 6.4	7.0 ± 3.8	2.0 ± 3.1	2.7 ± 2.4
	SLICC/ACR-DI	2.3 ± 2.3	4.0 ± 0.8	2.3 ± 1.6	0.7 ± 1.2
	Renal disease	67.6%	100%	14.3%	33.3%
Atherosclerosis	Atherosclerosis phenotype	0%	75.0%	71.0%	20.0%
	Carotid intima-media thickness	0.53	0.69	0.72	0.59
	Carotid plaque	0%	75.0%	57.1%	33.3%
	Coronary artery calcium score	0	124 ± 85	349 ± 786	103 ± 252
	Aortic calcium score	0	2,638 ± 3,261	828 ± 995	89 ± 149
Traditional cardiovascular risk factors	0	33.3%	25%	28.6%	66.7%
	1	66.7%	25%	14.3%	16.7%
	2	0%	25%	28.6%	16.7%
	3	0%	25%	28.6%	0%
	Average number of risk factors	0.7	1.5	1.6	0.5
Current medication use	Steroids	33.3%	75.0%	28.6%	0.0%
	Hydroxychloroquine	100%	75.0%	71.4%	33.3%
	Immunosuppressants	33.3%	100%	28.6%	16.7%
	Statins	0%	75.0%	28.6%	33.3%

Demographics, disease activity, and atherosclerosis measures are given in aggregate for each cluster. The four traditional cardiovascular risk factors assessed were hypertension (defined as either systolic blood pressure of more than 140 mm Hg, diastolic blood pressure of more than 90 mm Hg or use of antihypertensives and excluded individuals taking antihypertensives only for renal protective measures in the setting of systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE) nephritis), dyslipidemia (defined as elevated total cholesterol or low-density lipoprotein according to Adult Treatment Panel III guidelines [30] or use of cholesterol lowering medication), diabetes, and smoking. Definition and assessment of imaging parameters are described in the Materials and methods. SLEDAI-2 K, Systemic Lupus Erythematosus Disease Activity Index-2000; SLICC/ACR-DI, Systemic Lupus International Collaborating Clinics/American College of Rheumatology Damage Index.

ISSN: 1478-6362