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Study Finds Risk of Low Bone Density, Carotic Arterial Disease Increases with SLE
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| | Carotid artery and plaque buildup |
A new Swedish study has found that along with increasing the risk of low bone density, patients with Systemic Lupus Erythematosus have twice the risk of plaque build-up in the carotic arteries.
Patients with systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE) have an increased burden of carotid atherosclerosis and are more likely to have carotid plaque at similar levels of bone mineral density (BMD) than matched individuals without SLE, Swedish researchers have found.
The study also found that risk is most severe in older women. Carotic arteries are two large blood vessels that supply oxygenated blood to the part of the brain responsible for thinking, speech, personality, and sensory and motor functions ( source).
Mindful also of the association between cardiovascular disease and lupus and a higher risk of plaque buildup in patients with active CVD, researchers had the following advise for clinicians:
"The message for clinical practice is that diagnosis and treatment of bone loss in patients with SLE should include consideration of cardiovascular risk assessment to improve cardiovascular outcomes; conversely, detection of (sub)clinical atherosclerosis should prompt consideration of densitometry to diagnose and prevent complications of osteoporosis," they wrote.
You can learn more about the study here. | 
