Treatment of acute disseminated lupus erythematosus with corticotropin and cortisone.

Abstract

THIS REPORT deals with the results of a prolonged follow-up study of 32 patients with acute disseminated lupus erythematosus treated with corticotropin and cortisone. Our initial study commenced 40 months ago, and in our earlier reports we described the results obtained in a limited number of patients with these therapeutic agents.* Our series of patients includes 26 females and 6 males, and the ages of the patients varied from 11 to 60 years (Table 1). The largest incidence of the disease occurred during the second, third, and fourth decades, but almost no age group is immune to the possible onset of this illness. All patients included in the investigation were admitted to the general medical wards of The Mount Sinai Hospital and were followed by the same group of investigators throughout the period of study, both while the patients were in the hospital and, when they were subsequently discharged,