biostudies-literatureUnknown6(7)Li TSystemic lupus erythematosus (SLE) is a serious autoimmune disorder predominantly affecting women. However, screening for SLE and related complications poses significant challenges globally, due to complex diagnostic criteria and public unawareness. Since SLE-related retinal involvement could provide insights into disease activity and severity, we develop a deep learning system (DeepSLE) to detect SLE and its retinal and kidney complications from retinal images. In multi-ethnic validation datasets comprising 247,718 images from China and UK, DeepSLE achieves areas under the receiver operating characteristic curve of 0.822-0.969 for SLE. Additionally, DeepSLE demonstrates robust performance across subgroups stratified by gender, age, ethnicity, and socioeconomic status. To ensure DeepSLE's Cell reports. Medicine102203https://www.ebi.ac.uk/biostudies/studies/S-EPMC12281353biostudies-literatureA deep learning system for detecting systemic lupus erythematosus from retinal images.PMC12281353Shen JLin SYu SLu YShu JWu CQin YLiu RSheng BZhang SWagner SKZheng YFSabanayagam CChen XWang ZWu YChen TLi HLi JKeane PATham YCZhou YWang YJWong TYGuan ZLi TDai RFang PZeng DfalseA deep learning system for detecting systemic lupus erythematosus from retinal images.Systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE) is a serious autoimmune disorder predominantly affecting women. However, screening for SLE and related complications poses significant challenges globally, due to complex diagnostic criteria and public unawareness. Since SLE-related retinal involvement could provide insights into disease activity and severity, we develop a deep learning system (DeepSLE) to detect SLE and its retinal and kidney complications from retinal images. In multi-ethnic validation datasets comprising 247,718 images from China and UK, DeepSLE achieves areas under the receiver operating characteristic curve of 0.822-0.969 for SLE. Additionally, DeepSLE demonstrates robust performance across subgroups stratified by gender, age, ethnicity, and socioeconomic status. To ensure DeepSLE's 2025-01-01T00:00:00Z2025 Jul2026-03-27T15:14:38.64Z2025-08-23T03:09:02.118ZS-EPMC122813534057085310.1016/j.xcrm.2025.102203