Clinical Analysis of Patients With New-Onset Untreated Systemic Lupus Erythematosus Complicated With Cytomegalovirus Infection Short Title: Untreated SLE With CMV Infection

We investigated the clinical characteristics and short-term prognosis of patients with new-onset, untreated systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE) complicated with active cytomegalovirus (CMV) infection. Of the 86 patients enrolled in this study, 60 had active CMV infection. The proportions of patients with fever (65.0% versus 38.5%, P = 0.041), hematologic system involvement (80.0% versus 57.7%, P = 0.032), kidney involvement (50.0% versus 26.9%, P = 0.047), anti-double-stranded-DNA antibody positivity (51.7% versus 26.9%, P = 0.034), and severe disease activity (SLEDAI-2000 ≥ 15 points; 58.3% versus 30.8%, P = 0.019) were significantly higher, whereas serum C3 complement levels (0.48 ± 0.22 versus 0.60 ± 0.25, P = 0.032) were significantly lower in the CMV+ group than in the CMV- group, respectively. Initial SLE treatment, clinical features, laboratory data, and SLE treatment did not differ at 3- and 6-month follow-ups. In patients with CMV+, there were no significant differences in clinical features, laboratory data, SLE treatment, and laboratory index at 3-month follow-up between patients with or without antiviral treatment. These findings provided important insights into the characteristics of new-onset SLE complicated with active CMV infection and showed that antiviral treatment may have affect short-term prognosis.