DOI: 10.36347/sjmcr.2023.v11i08.022

Pages: 1513-1518

Introduction: Systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE) is an autoimmune disease, uncommon in men. The study of gender differences in SLE has been the subject of several publications. The main aim of our study is to identify gender differences in terms of clinical manifestations, immunological profile, activity score, and disease evolution in our Moroccan population. Results: We analyzed 279 patients (21 men versus 258 women), with a mean age at diagnosis of 37.54 +/- 23.39 years for women and 42.74 +/- 16.33 years for men. A comparison of clinical and immunological manifestations showed that male patients had a higher prevalence of renal involvement, lymphopenia, leukopenia, and general signs, but the difference was not significant. However, we did establish a significant correlation between male sex and cardiac involvement (P=0.013) as well as neuropsychiatric involvement (P=0.05). We also observed a significant association with anti-SSA antibodies (p=0.007). Dermatological and articular events were more frequent in women than in men, with a statistically significant association between female gender and photosensitivity (p=0.037). There was also a statistically significant correlation between women with RNP antibodies (p = 0.016) and anti-native DNA antibodies (p=0.047). The outcome was good in 67% of men (vs. 86.2% p=0.802), with response to treatment and control of the disease, and poor in 33% of men (vs. 13.9% %, p=0.019). Conclusions: Our study reveals the influence of gender on certain clinical manifestations of SLE. Dermatological and articular manifestations are more frequent in women, whereas men present a more severe disease, with a higher frequency of renal, cardiac, and neurological involvement.