Macrophage activation syndrome in systemic lupus erythematosus and systemic-onset juvenile idiopathic arthritis: a retrospective study of similarities and dissimilarities

Macrophage activation syndrome (MAS) is a serious complication of rheumatic diseases. Fever and hyperferritinemia are common in active systemic-onset juvenile idiopathic arthritis (sJIA) and cytopenia in active systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE), thus recognizing MAS in them is a challenge. We compared clinical and laboratory parameters, various classification criteria, and outcomes of MAS in SLE and sJIA. Clinical and laboratory data were extracted from case records of patients with clinician diagnosed cases of SLE-MAS (adult and pediatric) and sJIA-MAS, admitted (2004–2018) at a tertiary care hospital. Ravelli, International consensus, HLH-2004, and criteria proposed by Parodi et al. were applied and compared. Among 33 patients (18 females) with MAS, 19 had SLE (7, childhood-onset SLE) and 14 had sJIA. MAS was more likely to be the presenting manifestation of disease in SLE (p < 0.05). There were no differences in the clinical features among them. Patients with SLE-MAS had lower baseline total leucocyte and platelet counts (p < 0.01), whereas patients with sJIA-MAS had significantly higher median CRP (p = 0.002), fall in TLC (p = 0.012), delta ESR/CRP ratio (p = 0.02), and lower fibrinogen level (p = 0.006). Neutrophil-to-lymphocyte ratio, ferritin/CRP ratio, and the number of patients with ferritin/ESR > 80 were similar. Only 6/33(18%) fulfilled the HLH criteria. Criteria meant for sJIA-MAS or SLE-MAS performed well for both diseases and the majority of patients could be diagnosed using them. Two patients died in each group. MAS in SLE and sJIA is more similar than dissimilar in clinical features and outcome. Criteria meant for MAS in sJIA or SLE-MAS performed equally well in both diseases.