Disease flare patterns and predictors of systemic lupus erythematosus in a monocentric cohort of 423 Japanese patients during a long-term follow-up: The JUDE study

AbstractObjective: To clarify the clinical features of systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE) patients, factors associated with flares, and changes over time.Methods: Patients having SLE with a visiting history were entered into the Juntendo University Database of Erythematosus. We included 423 cases in the long-term follow-up analysis, and 383 cases were followed for 10 years after the initiation of any therapeutic intervention (comparative analysis: 1973–1982, 82 cases; 1983–1992, 141, and 1993–2002, 160). We assessed changes in the patients’ background characteristics, disease symptoms, flare rates, etc.Results: Among the 423 cases, the mean follow-up period was 25.9 years, and mean number of flares was 0.51. Of those, 31.9% had ≥1 flares. Thrombocytopenia at onset contributed to the flares. For disease symptoms at onset, a recent trend in increasing thrombocytopenia was observed. The combination rate of immunosuppressive agents for diseases other than lupus nephritis was slightly increased, and there was ...