Occurance of Vascular Access Thrombosis in Patients with Systemic Lupus Erythematosus on Hemodialysis

Abstract

SLE is not an uncommon multi-systems disease characterized by auto-antibodies directed at nuclear antigens and causing a variety of clinical and laboratory abnormalities. Renal affection occurs in more than 60% in patients with SLE and around 15% of patients with lupus nephritis progress to end stage renal disease (ESRD) and hemodialysis. Anti-phospholipid syndrome (APS) is an acquired cause of hypercoagulability and it predisposes to both venous, arterial thrombosis, abortion and other pregnancy morbidities. The most common venous thrombosis is DVT and the most common arterial thrombosis is stroke. Anti-phospholipid syndrome is either primary or secondary in association with other connective tissue disorders specially SLE and about 8% of primary anti-phospholipid patients later develop SLE. Our cross sectional study is aimed to assess the occurrence of vascular access thrombosis in SLE patients on regular hemodialysis.