A new study of more than 2,900 patients provides evidence that it’s likely best to use as little corticosteroid medicine as possible when treating people who have lupus pericarditis, a common heart complication of the autoimmune disease Systemic Lupus Erythematosus (SLE).
This study, funded by the National Institutes of Health’s (NIH) National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute (NHLBI) and led by Johns Hopkins Medicine cardiologists and rheumatologists who led the study say their analysis of data affirms that using steroids to curb heart inflammation and other painful symptoms for lupus patients is also a risk factor for recurring pericarditis, a potentially dangerous inflammation of the saclike membrane that encases and protects the heart.
Results of this study were published in the February 25th addition of JAMA Network Open
According to the American Heart Association, pericarditis is defined as inflammation of the pericardium, a sac-like structure with two thin layers of tissue that surround the heart to hold it in place and help protect it. Pericarditis typically presents as chest pain that can be exacerbated by lying flat and improved by leaning forward. This pain can last anywhere from a few days to several months. Treatment options for pericarditis include use of colchicine – an anti-inflammatory medication that prevents the recurrence of pericarditis – and corticosteroids.
Pericarditis occurs in 15% to 30% of patients with SLE, a chronic autoimmune disease that causes the body’s immune system to attack its own tissues.
It is well known that, in the general population, one fifth