Abstract
Autoimmune Rheumatic Diseases (ARDs) are chronic multisystemic diseases that have a low prevalence (estimated to range from 4 to 5% of the general population), and the impact on mortality in ARDs is lower (mortality reported in ARDs is 0.3 to 2.1) in general statistics worldwide compared to other diseases with higher prevalence such as arterial hypertension (HBP) or diabetes mellitus (DM). The objective of this review is to update the concepts regarding mortality associated with ARD, and the most relevant studies and review were included. The causes of mortality among ARDs vary widely between geographic areas and cannot be generalized, although the most important frequency reported is in rheumatoid arthritis (RA), systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE) and scleroderma (SSc). It has recently been reported that measuring the standardized mortality rate (SMR) identifies the inflammatory diseases with increased risk: 4.80 in systemic vasculitis (SV), 2.9 in SLE, and 1.44 in RA. The causes of death are regularly associated with acute events (infections and respiratory and cardiovascular diseases) and less frequent related to the disease severity. Other reported associated factors have been age, duration, type of presentation of the disease, and socioeconomic status. We found that the variation between the main reported causes is little; significantly higher mortality (five times more) has been found in the regional analysis in Latin America compared to that in Europe. The most important factor in the last decades is the habitual use of drugs that increase the risk of immunosuppression and infection.