Antimalarial Therapy Protects Patients with Lupus Erythematosus Against Thrombovascular Disease

Antimalarial therapy appeared to delay the onset of systemic lupus erythematosus (LE) in a cohort of military patients with symptoms such as arthritis or cutaneous LE (JW Dermatol Oct 3 2007). Because systemic LE is an inflammatory disease, patients are considered to have an increased risk for cardiovascular and thrombotic disease. (Whether an association exists between cutaneous LE and thrombovascular risk is unknown.)

Investigators studied whether antimalarial therapy reduces the risk for thrombovascular events (TEs, defined as events in the venous or arterial systems) in patients with LE. They matched 54 patients who had TEs with 108 control LE patients who did not. Of the 54 patients, 32 had arterial TEs, including 16 involving the coron…