Research Summary

Nationwide Analysis of the Occurrence of Neuromyelitis Optica in Patients With Autoimmune Disorders

Jessica Ganga

Patients with neuromyelitis optica (NMO) have a higher risk of systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE) and primary Sjögren syndrome (SS) occurring when compared with the general population, a recent study found.

A team of researchers sought to investigate the occurrence of NMO among patients with SLE and SS and study the clinical characteristics and outcomes of NMO and SLE/SS hospitalizations.

For their study, researchers used data from the National Inpatient Sample (NIS) database from 2016 to 2019. Adult hospitalizations with a diagnosis of NMO—principal or secondary—were included.

“We classified NMO patients with and without concomitant diagnosis of SLE or Sjögren’s syndrome. We evaluated and compared the clinical characteristics and outcomes of NMO hospitalizations with and without SLE or Sjögren’s syndrome,” the researchers wrote.

In total, 16,360 adult hospitalizations with a discharge diagnosis of NMO were included in the study and 1425 (8.71%) of patients had a primary or secondary diagnosis of SLE or SS. The odds of NMO in SLE was noted to be 12.29 and the odds of Sjögren syndrome was 5.56. NMO with SLE/SS group had higher proportion of women (89.82% vs 79%, P < 0.001), individuals who are Black (56.63% vs 38.28%, P < 0.001), and individuals who are Asian (5.73% vs 3.25%, P = 0.04).

Further, there were higher reported incidences of seizures (14.73% vs 6.05, P < 0.001) and paraplegia (21.75% vs 13.93%, P < 0.001) in patients with NMO and SLE/SS.

“[Patients with] NMO had a 12-fold higher risk of SLE and 5-fold higher risk of Sjogren disease when compared to general population,” the researchers concluded. “Patients with overlap of NMO and SLE or Sjogren’s were predominantly women and were more likely to be [individuals who are Black]. Co-existence of these autoimmune disorders was associated with poor prognosis in terms of higher morbidity for patients and increased health care burden.”

 

Reference:

Sami F, Sami SA, Manadan AM, Arora S. Nationwide analysis of neuromyelitis optica in systemic lupus erythematosus and Sjogren’s syndrome. Clin Rheumatol. 2024;43(1):59-65. doi:10.1007/s10067-023-06809-z