Disease duration and herpes zoster infection related to neutropenia in patients with systemic lupus erythematosus

Systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE) is an autoimmune disease involving several organs. Neutropenia in patients with SLE may be a factor associated with infection leading to higher morbidity and mortality. There are several inconsistent predictors of neutropenia in patients with SLE. The present study is a retrospective, analytical study, which aimed to identify other predictors of neutropenia in patients with SLE. Patients with SLE who had been regularly followed up for ≥1 year were included in this study. Clinical factors, including history of disease, comorbidities, previous infection, laboratory results and treatment, were collected. The primary analyzed indicator was the occurrence of neutropenia. Factors associated with neutropenia were calculated by multivariate logistic regression analysis. A total of 84 patients met the study criteria. Of those 84 patients, 36 (42.86%) developed neutropenia. There were seven factors placed in the predictive model for neutropenia. Two factors were independently associated with the presence of neutropenia: Disease duration and herpes zoster infection. The first factor was negatively related with neutropenia with an adjusted odds ratio of 0.70 (95% confidence interval, 0.54, 0.92), whereas herpes zoster infection was an independent risk factor for neutropenia with an adjusted odds ratio of 8.46 (95% confidence interval, 1.30, 54.80). In conclusion, the present study revealed that short duration of disease and herpes zoster infection are predictors of neutropenia in patients with SLE.