Table 1. Baseline characteristics of all pregnant SLE patients and according to the ethnicities.
| Parameters | All patients, n = 120 Frequency (%)/ Mean ± S.D |
Malay (n = 80, 66.7%) | Chinese, (n = 33, 27.5%) |
Others* (n = 7, 5.8%) |
p |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Age at conception (years) | 30.9 ± 4.1 | 30.6 ± 3.8 | 31.5 ± 4.5 | 30.5 ± 4.8 | 0.54 |
| Age of SLE diagnosis (years) | 24.3 ± 5.6 | 24.1 ± 4.9 | 24.2 ± 5.8 | 23.3 ± 5.7 | 0.78 |
| SLE duration at conception (years) | 7.4 ± 5.1 | 7.1 ± 4.9 | 7.9 ± 5.7 | 8.6 ± 4.6 | 0.42 |
| System manifestation, n (%) | |||||
| Musculoskeletal | 89 (74.2) | 63 (78.8) | 20 (60.6) | 6 (85.7) | 0.06& |
| Haematological | 77 (64.2) | 55 (68.8) | 19 (57.6) | 3 (42.9) | 0.10 |
| Lupus Nephritis | 66 (55.0) | 39 (48.8) | 22 (66.7) | 5 (71.4) | 0.06# |
| Muco-cutaneous | 64 (53.3) | 45 (56.3) | 15 (45.4) | 4 (57.1) | 0.45 |
| Neuropsychiatric | 11 (9.2) | 7 (8.8) | 2 (6.1) | 0 (0) | 0.71 |
| APLS | 24 (12.2) | 9 (11.3) | 0 (0) | 2 (28.6) | 0.03& |
| Renal biopsy, n = 66 | |||||
| No biopsy, n (%) | 19 (28.8) | 10 (15.2) | 7 (10.6) | 2 (9.1) | 0.55 |
| Class II, n (%) | 1 (1.5) | 1 (1.5) | 0 (0) | 0 (0) | |
| Class III (± class V), n (%) | 12 (18.2) | 8 (12.1) | 3 (4.5) | 1 (1.5) | |
| Class IV (± class V), n (%) | 29 (43.9) | 19 (28.8) | 8 (12.1) | 2 (3.0) | |
| Class V, n (%) | 5 (7.6) | 1 (1.5) | 4 (6.1) | 0 (0) | |
| Anti-dsDNA positive, n (%) | 98 (84.5) | 65 (81.2) | 28 (84.8) | 5 (71.4) | 0.61 |
| aPL status¶, n (%) | |||||
| LA positive | 25 (23.4) | 14 (17.5) | 8 (24.2) | 3 (42.9) | 0.42 |
| aCL IgG positive | 30 (25.4) | 20 (25.0) | 7 (21.2) | 3 (42.9) | 0.43 |
| aCL IgM positive | 28 (23.7) | 20 (25.0) | 8 (24.2) | 0 (0) | 0.65 |
| ENAs status¥, n (%) | |||||
| Anti Ro/La positive | 30 (28.6) | 21 (26.3) | 8 (24.2) | 1 (16.7) | 0.99 |
| Anti-Sm positive | 27 (25.7) | 15 (18.8) | 9 (27.3) | 3 (50.0) | 0.08 |
| Anti-RNP positive | 24 (23.1) | 16 (20.0) | 5 (15.2) | 3 (50.0) | 0.23 |
| Obstetric history, n = 192 | |||||
| Primigravida, n (%) | 74 (37.8) | 47 (35.6) | 23 (50.0) | 4 (22.2) | 0.06& |
| Prior foetal loss, n (%) | 26 (13.3) | 17 (12.9) | 4 (8.7) | 5 (27.8) | 0.07$ |
| History of recurrent miscarriages ≥ 2, n (%) | 16 (8.2) | 9 (6.9) | 3 (6.5) | 4 (22.2) | 0.04$ |
| Disease activity at conception (n = 192) | |||||
| Active disease | 61 (31.8) | 42 (32.1) | 12 (27.9) | 7 (38.9) | 0.48 |
| Active haematology | 22 (11.5) | 14 (10.7) | 6 (14.0) | 0 (0) | 0.17 |
| Active LN | 26 (19.8) | 26 (19.8) | 5 (11.6) | 2 (11.1) | 0.36 |
| Active musculoskeletal | 7 (3.6) | 6 (4.6) | 1 (2.3) | 0 (0) | 0.56 |
| Active muco-cutaneous | 9 (4.7) | 5 (3.8) | 1 (2.3) | 3 (16.7) | 0.04$ |
| Active pulmonary | 1 (0.5) | 1 (0.8) | 0 (0) | 0 (0) | 1.00 |
aCL = anticardiolipin, APLS = antiphospholipid syndrome, ENAs = Extractable nuclear antigens, LA = lupus anticoagulant, LN = lupus nephritis
*Others: 6 Indians and 1 Arab
&Chinese compared to Malays and Indians
#Malays compared to Chinese and Indians
$Others compared to Malay and Chinese
¶ Total patients with aCL = 118, LA = 107
¥ Total patients with ENAs (anti-Ro/La, anti-Sm and anti-RNP) = 105.