Parisa ASHOURNIA, Payman SADEGHI, Nima REZAEI, Mohammad-Hassan MORADINEJAD and Vahid ZIAEE

ABSTRACT

Systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE) is a multisystem autoimmune disease. Near 10% of affected children have a relative with SLE. Autoimmune diseases are more common in relatives of children with SLE. As there is no study regarding the prevalence of autoimmune disease in cases with pediatric SLE, we designed this study to evaluate the prevalence of autoimmune disease in children with SLE. In this cross sectional study, 50 children with SLE and 50 healthy children were enrolled. A structured questionnaire was used to collect data regarding the presence of autoimmune diseases in relatives. One thousand eight hundred and thirty two relatives were evaluated in the case group and 1699 in the control group. The number of relatives with autoimmune diseases was significantly higher in the case group (26 vs 10). The most common autoimmune diseases were lupus, followed by thyroid diseases among cases, and thyroid diseases and rheumatoid arthritis in controls.
According to the results of this study, the prevalence of autoimmune disorders is more common in relatives of children with SLE than in those of controls.
Keywords: lupus, SLE, autoimmune disorder, family history, children.

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