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Kurt Lange, MD
Lenox Hill Hospital New York

JAMA. 1981;245(8):822.

	Since this article does not have an abstract, we have provided the first 150 words of the full text PDF and any section headings.

To the Editor.—

The recent article by Moore et al (1980;244:63) demonstrates again in their single case of advanced renal failure in systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE) the important fact that the renal lesions are almost always amenable to steroid therapy when the immunologic data are made the exclusive guideposts of therapy. We had stressed this fact in 1965¹ based at that time on 15 cases.

In the meantime, we have treated 104 patients with SLE of which 76 have been followed up for an average of 10.2 years. Therapy is guided by the frequently repeated complement determinations (50% complement hemolysis [CH₅₀]), recently combined with DNA-binding tests, adjusting the steroid dose dogmatically until these guideposts become normal or close to normal. This is then followed by intermittent steroid maintenance treatment.

We have had a mortality from SLE of 4%, while the mortality among those patients who withdrew from the immunologically . . . [Full Text PDF of this Article]

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