Publications

OBJECTIVE

To assess the reliability and criterion and construct validity of the self-administered Brief Index of Lupus Damage (SA-BILD), a patient-reported measure of organ damage in systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE).

METHODS

The validity of the SA-BILD was assessed using data from the Georgians Organized Against Lupus (GOAL) survey. GOAL is a longitudinal cohort of SLE patients predominantly derived from the Georgia Lupus Registry, a population-based registry established in Atlanta, Georgia. In total, 711 participants with documented SLE completed the SA-BILD. To test reliability, the SA-BILD was readministered to 32 patients. Criterion validity was examined in 150 respondents for whom the Systemic Lupus International Collaborating Clinics/American College of Rheumatology Damage Index (SDI) was also completed. Construct validity was assessed among 711 GOAL participants by dividing the SA-BILD scores into quartiles and examining the association with demographics, health status, and health care utilization.

RESULTS

The test-retest correlation score was 0.93 (P < 0.0001), the item-by-item agreement with the SDI was >80% for most SA-BILD items, and the Spearman's rho correlation coefficient for the SDI and SA-BILD was moderately high (ρ = 0.59, P < 0.0001). SA-BILD scores showed significant associations in the expected directions with age, disease duration, disease activity, overall health, comorbidity index, and physician visits.

CONCLUSION

The SA-BILD was reliable and had very good or good criterion validity compared with the SDI when tested in a predominantly African American cohort of US SLE patients. Associations of SA-BILD scores with sociodemographics and health status were consistent with previous studies. These findings support the use of the SA-BILD as a valid measure of patient-reported damage in SLE.

Malaria and iron have a complex but important relationship. Plasmodium proliferation requires iron, both during the clinically silent liver stage of growth and in the disease-associated phase of erythrocyte infection. Precisely how the protozoan acquires its iron from its mammalian host remains unclear, but iron chelators can inhibit pathogen growth in vitro and in animal models. In humans, iron deficiency appears to protect against severe malaria, while iron supplementation increases risks of infection and disease. Malaria itself causes profound disturbances in physiological iron distribution and utilization, through mechanisms that include hemolysis, release of heme, dyserythropoiesis, anemia, deposition of iron in macrophages, and inhibition of dietary iron absorption. These effects have significant consequences. Malarial anemia is a major global health problem, especially in children, that remains incompletely understood and is not straightforward to treat. Furthermore, the changes in iron metabolism during a malaria infection may modulate susceptibility to co-infections. The release of heme and accumulation of iron in granulocytes may explain increased vulnerability to non-typhoidal Salmonella during malaria. The redistribution of iron away from hepatocytes and into macrophages may confer host resistance to superinfection, whereby blood-stage parasitemia prevents the development of a second liver-stage Plasmodium infection in the same organism. Key to understanding the pathophysiology of iron metabolism in malaria is the activity of the iron regulatory hormone hepcidin. Hepcidin is upregulated during blood-stage parasitemia and likely mediates much of the iron redistribution that accompanies disease. Understanding the regulation and role of hepcidin may offer new opportunities to combat malaria and formulate better approaches to treat anemia in the developing world.

Human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) serodiscordant couples are at risk of sexual transmission of HIV between the infected and uninfected partner. We assessed New York area care providers for people living with HIV regarding attitudes, knowledge, and practice patterns toward fertility and conception in serodiscordant couples. Data were collected via a survey distributed in October 2013. Seventeen percent of respondents reported prescribing antiretroviral preexposure prophylaxis (PrEP) for a woman in a serodiscordant couple, and 38% percent of respondents reported having counseled serodiscordant couples on timed, unprotected intercourse without PrEP. Respondents who reported being "very" familiar with the data on HIV transmission in serodiscordant couples were more likely to report counseling their patients in timed, unprotected intercourse compared with those who reported less familiarity with the data (41% vs. 8%, p = 0.001). Although only 20% reported being "very" or "somewhat" familiar with the data on the safety of sperm washing with intrauterine insemination, those who did were more likely to have reported referring a patient for assisted reproductive technology (61% vs. 32%, p = 0.006). Effective patient counseling and referral for appropriate reproductive options were associated with knowledge of the literature pertaining to these options. This emphasizes the need for further provider education on reproductive options and appropriate counseling for serodiscordant couples.