Survival rates for patients with systemic lupus erythematosus–associated pulmonary arterial hypertension have increased over the last 10 years, EULAR reported in a press release. The new findings were presented by Dong et al at the EULAR 2023 Congress and simultaneously published in the Annals of the Rheumatic Diseases. In a recent, prospective cohort study, researchers divided 610 patients with lupus-associated pulmonary arterial hypertension into two groups: cohort A, which included patients who underwent right heart catheterization between 2011 and 2016; and cohort B, which enrolled patients who underwent the procedure between 2016 and 2021. The researchers discovered that patients in cohort B demonstrated lower median pulmonary arterial pressure and pulmonary vascular resistance, had a higher chance of receiving intensive immunosuppressants and agents targeting pulmonary arterial hypertension, and had an increased 5-year survival rate compared with patients in cohort A. The researchers concluded that improved early diagnosis and treatment for both pulmonary arterial hypertension and lupus may have led to the increased survival rates in patients that were treated more recently.
June 19, 2023