Incidence of Atrial Fibrillation and Related Outcomes among Hospitalized Patients with Systemic Lupus Erythematosus: Analysis of United States Nationwide Inpatient Sample Database 2016-2019.

Background

While patients with systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE) are known to have an increased risk of developing atrial fibrillation (AF), there is a scarcity of national population-based studies that evaluate the impact of AF on SLE.

Methods

In this study, we use the 2016 to 2019 National Inpatient Sample (NIS) to determine the impact of AF on inpatient outcomes among adults hospitalized with systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE). Among a total of 41,004 SLE hospitalizations, 1495 (3.65%) patients had a concurrent diagnosis of AF. The baseline hospital and patient characteristics for both cohorts (SLE with AF and SLE without AF) were compared using the chi-square test and Student's t-test while univariate and multivariate regression analysis were used to calculate the unadjusted and adjusted odds ratios (aOR) for in-hospital outcomes for both cohorts.

Results

Our data revealed that among SLE patients, AF was associated with higher in-hospital mortality (aOR 2.07), length of stay (9.03 days), and hospital costs (USD 100,190.50) along with increased incidence of non-ST-elevation myocardial infarction (NSTEMI) (aOR 2.79), pericardial effusion (aOR 2.38), cardiac tamponade (aOR 3.33), and cardiogenic shock (aOR 8.19).

Conclusion

Our findings suggest that patients hospitalized with SLE and underlying AF may be at risk for poor clinical outcomes.