DISSEMINATE LUPUS ERYTHEMATOSUS

Abstract

DISSEMINATE lupus erythematosus is to be regarded as a systemic disease which in its acute form usually terminates fatally. Cutaneous manifestations do not always predominate; they may be transitory and even in a few cases absent throughout the course of the disease, in which instances one speaks of "lupus erythematosus without cutaneous lesions." The purpose of this paper is to review the cases of disseminate lupus erythematosus seen at the Mayo Clinic up to 1948. An analysis of 154 cases of disseminate lupus erythematosus up to 1938, together with a review of the literature, was given in "Oxford Medicine.¹" This survey included a compilation of various studies and papers over a period of years by Goeckerman, Keith and Rowntree, O'Leary, Brunsting and one of us (H. M.). A subsequent report was made in a symposium on lupus erythematosus by Kierland, Montgomery, Stickney, Keith, Slocumb and O'Leary.² An