The Analysis Of The Hospitalized Death Cases In Connective Tissue Disease

Objective To investigate the causes of death in patients with connective tissue (CTD) and the factors affecting the mortality of CTD.Methods Hospitalized death cases with CTD from March 2003 to November 2008 were retrospectively analyzed.Results Out of 3961 patients with CTD, 80 died, in which 12 were male and 68 were female. The three most common diseases in CTD of death were systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE), polymyositis/dermatomyositis (PM/DM), systemic sclerosis(SSc), accounting for 55.0%, 17.5% and 7.5% respectively. The three highest in-hospital mortality diseases of CTD were overlap syndrome, SSc, systemic vasculitis, accounting for 5.7%, 4.8% and 4.5% respectively. The causes of death in hospitalized CTD patients were: CTD itself (48.8%), infection (38.8%), unknown origin(5.0%), cordis and cerebral accidents(3.8%), adverse drug reaction(3.8%). The three most common causes of death in hospitalized SLE were infection, impairment of cardiovascular system and neuropsychiatric lupus. 78.6% PM/DM patients died of pulmonary infection. Most dead CTD patients were between 31 and 60 years old, the causes of death in different age groups were different significantly, patients over 60 years old were died of infection mainly. 61.3% dead CTD patients died in the first three years. Causes of death in different years did not change significantly. Conclusion SLE, PM/DM, SSc were the three most common diseases in CTD patients of death. The mortality in Overlap syndrome, SSc, systemic vasculitis was higher than other diseases of CTD. The causes of death in hospitalized CTD patients were mainly CTD itself and infection. The causes of death in different age groups were different significantly. Most of dead CTD patients died in the first three years.