To investigate associations between a high genetic disease risk and disease severity in patients with systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE).
Patients with SLE (n=1001, discovery cohort and n=5524, replication cohort) and healthy controls (n=2802 and n=9859) were genotyped using a 200K Immunochip single nucleotide polymorphism array. A genetic risk score (GRS) was assigned to each individual based on 57 SLE risk loci.
SLE was more prevalent in the high, compared with the low, GRS-quartile (OR 12.32 (9.53 to 15.71), p=7.9×10
A high GRS is associated with increased risk of organ damage, renal dysfunction and all-cause mortality. Our results indicate that genetic profiling may be useful for predicting outcomes in patients with SLE.