RENAL INVOLVEMENT IN DISSEMINATED LUPUS ERYTHEMATOSUS

Abstract

In recent years the disorder recognized as disseminated lupus erythematosus has become of increasing interest to internists and pathologists because of the widespread visceral and systemic involvement in the disease. The dermatologic classification of lupus erythematosus and the diversified clinical manifestations of the disseminated form have been reviewed in several recent articles and will not be repeated at length here. It is sufficient briefly to summarize.¹ In contradistinction to the more common or discoid form of lupus erythematosus, the disseminated type, recognized as early as 1845 by Hebra and Cazenave, was established as a grave disease by Kaposi² in 1872. In 1895 Sir William Osler³ stressed the importance of the systemic complications of a heterogeneous series of conditions called the erythema group. Some, but probably not all, of these were disseminated lupus erythematosus. In 1922 Ehrmann and Falkenstein⁴ were able to gather from the literature only 65 authentic cases in