Systemic lupus erythematosus in pediatric patients: Pulmonary manifestations

The pulmonary manifestations of Systemic Lupus Erythematosus (SLE) in pediatric patients are poorly understood and the pulmonary manifestations reported from the adult population are generally extrapolated to the pediatric population. In the present work, the review of 228 files was carried out, in which the pulmonary manifestations, symptoms and antibody levels of the patients treated at the Hospital Regional de Alta Especialidad de Ixtapaluca (HRAEI), State of Mexico, Mexico, were identified. Statistical significance between groups was estimated using the Chi-square and Mann-Whitney U test. The main pulmonary manifestations identified were pleurisy (14 %), pulmonary hemorrhage (3.9 %), pulmonary thromboembolism (0.9 %), acute lupus pneumonitis (0.4 %), pulmonary arterial hypertension (0.4 %), and small lung syndrome (0.4 %). While the initial symptomatology was dyspnea with an incidence of 9.6 %, the mean oxygen saturation in the population was 96.87 %. Pleural effusion was identified as the most frequent pulmonary manifestation in radiographic changes. No statistically significant difference was found in antibody levels when comparing the groups. The most common pulmonary manifestation associated with SLE is pleurisy, however, the range of pulmonary manifestations in this type of patient can be very varied, as well as the presentation of each of them.