Prevalence and features of metabolic syndrome in childhood-onset systemic lupus erythematosus.

To estimate the prevalence and features of metabolic syndrome (MetS) in childhood-onset systemic lupus erythematosus (cSLE), we performed a cross-sectional study of 76 consecutive cSLE patients and 54 healthy controls, age and sex matched. All individuals were assessed for anthropometric and MetS features according to World Health Organization (WHO), NCEP Adult Treatment Panel III (NCEP-ATP III), and International Diabetes Federation (IDF) criteria. The cSLE patients were further assessed for clinical and laboratory manifestations, disease activity (Systemic Lupus Erythematosus Disease Activity Index), cumulative damage (Systemic Lupus International Collaborating Clinics (SLICC)), and current and cumulative drug exposures. Sixty-nine (90.8%) patients were female with mean age of 16.8 years [standard deviation (SD) ±4.0 years]. Mean disease duration was 4.8 years (SD ± 4.1). Based on the WHO MetS criteria, MetS was observed in two (2.6%) cSLE patients. We observed high prevalence of the MetS in cSLE patients according to NCEP-ATP III MetS criteria (18.4%) (p = 0.002) and according to IDF MetS criteria (17.1%) (p = 0.003). We did not observe MetS in the control group. No difference in cSLE patients <18 and ≥18 years was observed. We observed an association between the presence of MetS and SLICC scores in cSLE <18 years and cumulative corticosteroid dose adjusted by weight in cSLE ≥18 years. This study showed that MetS is frequently observed in cSLE using NCEP-ATP III MetS criteria and IDF MetS criteria. The identification of MetS is important to indicate cardiovascular morbidity and mortality in cSLE.