medwireNews: Children whose mothers have systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE) may have an increased risk for developing non-rheumatic autoimmune disease, researchers report.
However, “the vast majority” of these children do not have autoimmune conditions, say Julie Couture (The Hospital for Sick Children, Toronto, Ontario, Canada) and colleagues in Arthritis & Rheumatology.
In a study of the OSLER registry, the team found that 719 children born to 509 women with SLE had higher rates of autoimmune disorders – including Crohn’s disease and type 1 diabetes – during childhood and adolescence than the 8493 children born to 5824 matched women without SLE, at rates of 1.11% versus 0.48%.
On multivariate analysis, these findings translated into a 2.3-fold increased risk for autoimmune disease among children born to mothers with SLE.
The researchers found no such association for rheumatic diseases in children and adolescents, with rates of 0.14% and 0.19% for those whose mothers did and did not have SLE, respectively, but they note that “[f]uture studies throughout adulthood might show increased risk at a later age.”
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