Cardiac Manifestations during Systemic Lupus Erythematosus at Conakry University Hospital (Guinea)

Introduction: Systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE) is a non-organ-specific disease.Cardiac involvement is present in 25% -82% of cases and represents one of the leading causes of mortality.Materials and Methods: Systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE) is a non-organ-specific disease.Cardiac involvement is present in 25% -82% of cases and represents one of the leading causes of mortality.We included all patients with lupus who met at least four criteria of the American College of Rheumatology (ACR) classification of lupus disease in 1997.Results: During the study period, 5 patients among the 16 cases of systemic lupus erythematosus presented with cardiac involvement, representing a prevalence of 31.25%.The mean age of the patients was 28 years (range: 18 -46 years), three women and two men, for a sex ratio (M/F) of 0.67.Cardiac involvement revealed the disease in 3 cases and was pericarditis-like, including one case of tamponade.Clinical manifestations were dominated by dyspnea found in 4 cases (80%) and chest pain in 3 cases (60%).Echocardiography confirmed 2 cases of myocarditis, 1 case of Libman Sacks endocarditis, 1 case of PAH, one case of high-abundance pericarditis, and 2 cases of low-abundance pericarditis.Treatment consisted of corticosteroid therapy in 100% of cases, synthetic antimalarials in 70% of cases, and an angiotensin-converting enzyme inhibitor in 4 cases.Conclusion: Cardiac involvement in SLE is burdened with a high mortality rate.It affects all three layers of the heart but remains dominated by pericarditis.