Lupus erythematosus tumidus as a separate subtype of cutaneous lupus erythematosus

Abstract

Conflicts of interest: none declared. Madam, I read with interest the article by Schmitt et al.1 in a recent issue of the BJD. The article continues the previous legacy of the authors who should be highly commended for their efforts in studying cutaneous lupus erythematosus (CLE), especially lupus erythematosus tumidus (LET). My problem with the paper is that it did not add anything new to what is already known about tumid lupus, neither did it accomplish a resolution to the objectives stated by the authors, namely ‘whether LET can be distinguished as a separate entity in the classification system of the disease’. This objective seems to be ill conceived in view of having at least 25 papers in the reference list (from a total of 46) that have the words ‘lupus tumidus’ in their title. It is difficult to accept such an objective in the first place. Another objective of the authors (as written in the summary) is ‘to compare characteristic features of different subtypes of CLE’. If the authors start with the widely accepted premise that there are different subtypes of CLE that are clearly based on characteristic features of each, what does it mean when the authors say they wanted to compare characteristic features of different subtypes of CLE?