Lupus Erythematosus Disseminatus: Clinical Features and Prognosis

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Abstract
Summary The series examined consisted of 20 patients with LED, 3 of them being men. The patients' average age was remarkably high, 48.5 years. The dominant features were joint symptoms, fever, high SR and hyper-globulinemia, while skin changes played an insignificant role. The LE cell finding was negative or dubious in a few histologically verified cases, suggesting that the LE cell finding is not of absolutely decisive importance from the diagnostic point of view. Nor does biopsy seem to play a decisive role in the diagnosis of the disease. Prognosis is apparently not correlated to any individual symptoms of the disease, nor to the outcome of hormonal therapy, although this therapy was found to have a favourable effect on the course of the disease as a rule. Spontaneous remission is common. On account of the inconsistency of the clinical features of LED, diagnosis of this «rheumatic sepsis» has to be based on observations over a long period.

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