[Cardiac involvement in systemic lupus erythematosus: anatomo-pathological study].

To study the cardiac involvement in systemic lupus erythematosus, the clinical and necroscopy records of 29 patients were analyzed. Of these, 28 were female and 1 was male with a mean age of 28.6 +/- 10.4 years. The mean duration of the disease was 23.8 +/- 20.1 months. Twenty patients had the diagnosis of renal failure, 11 of arterial hypertension and 8 of congestive heart failure. No valvular or coronary arterial disease was diagnosed in any patient. The most frequent cause of death was sepsis, followed by renal failure. Only one patient died of causes directly related to heart disease. At necroscopy, 12 patients had pericarditis and 10 had cardiomegaly. Nonspecific valvular abnormalities were observed in 2 patients, Libman-Sacks' endocarditis in 1 and bacterial endocarditis in 2. Cardiovascular abnormalities were absent in only 8 (7.5%) patients. It was concluded that although frequent and contributing to mortality in some patients, cardiovascular involvement in systemic lupus erythematosus is multifactorial and, usually, nonspecific.