Objectives To evaluate the disease activity in patients with early systemic lupus erythematosus (early SLE) and to compare it to patient's and physician's global assessment.

Methods Cross-sectional study including 41 early SLE patients that fulfilled SLICC classification criteria, 2012. The early disease was defined one with the duration 2 years from the diagnosis. The disease activity was assessed by SLEDAI-2K and SLAM. Global indices were appreciated by patient and physician global assessments (PGA and MDGA), rated by 0–100 numeric score. We correlated disease activity indices with global assessments by Pearson coefficient.

Results There were 41 SLE patients integrated in the study, female:male ratio 9,25:1, mean age (SD) 39 (12.35) years (range 20–67 years), disease duration (SD) was 9.92 (9.18) month (range 1–24). The mean disease activity by SLEDAI was 11.2±7.84 (range 2–34) and SLAM – 8.83±4.41 (range 3–22) points, both indices denoted high disease activity level. Mean PGA values were 48.93 (19.13) (range 10–80), and mean MDGA values 45 (19.04) (range 10–80). Also, PGA and MDGA didn't correlate with SLEDAI (r=0,25, p>0,05; r=0,27, p>0,05), while a statistically significant correlation was determined with SLAM index (r=0,85, p<0.001; r=0,46, p=0.002). A subclass analysis of SLAM components showed that cortical dysfunction (depression, psychosis) and the presence of headache correlated with PGA (r=0,36, p<0,05; r=0,4, p<0,05), so we can establish that the difference in correlation between SLAM and SLEDAI with PGA and MDGA is explained by a more accurate disease assessment by SLAM, including also subjective complaints that influences the global patient's status.

Conclusions The use of SLAM for disease activity assessment in early SLE patients is more sensible than SLEDAI and its results correlates with PGA and MDGA.

Disclosure of Interest None declared