Lupus erythematosus; clinical and hematological studies in seventy-seven cases.

Abstract

Kaposi (1872) was the first person to establish a relationship between chronic discoid and acute disseminated lupus erythematosus. He noted that in some cases chronic discoid lesions preceded the onset of the acute disseminated disease, and in other cases followed it. Most subsequent observers have accepted this relationship. Thus, for example, in one large series approximately 25% of 121 cases of subacute disseminated lupus erythematosus began as the chronic discoid form, while about 20% of 62 cases of the acute disseminated disease originally presented with chronic discoid lupus erythematosus (Montgomery and McCreight, 1949). Many hematological abnormalities have been described in disseminated lupus erythematosus, including hypochromic and hemolytic anemias, leucopenia, granulopenia, eosinophilia, thrombocytopenia, increased erythrocyte sedimentation rate, cold agglutinins, a positive direct Coombs test, and lupus erythematosus cells (L. E. cells) (Michael, Vural, Bassen, and Schaefer, 1951; Shearn and Pirofsky, 1952;