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Skin in Systemic Lupus Erythematosus

Pathogenesis, Clinical Manifestations, and Treatment

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  • First Online:
Encyclopedia of Medical Immunology

Synonyms

ACR criteria; Cutaneous lupus erythematosus; Photosensitivity; RCLASI; Skin; SLICC index; Treatment

Definition

The autoimmune disease lupus erythematosus (LE) shows many different clinical manifestations reaching from primarily cutaneous lesions (cutaneous lupus erythematosus, CLE) to severe systemic organ manifestations (systemic lupus erythematosus, SLE). Skin manifestations appear in 73–85 % of patients with SLE and may occur at any stage of the disease; conversely, only a small percentage of patients with CLE subsequently develop a systemic manifestation of the disease.

Introduction

In 1982, the American College of Rheumatology (ACR) introduced a set of criteria for the classification of SLE that provided some degree of uniformity in classifying the patient populations of clinical studies (Tan et al. 1982). Although 4 of the 11 ACR criteria are mucocutaneous manifestations (malar rash, discoid lesions, photosensitivity, and oral ulcers), the clinical presentation of skin...

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Acknowledgments

We thank P. Wissel, J. Bückmann, and Professor T. A. Luger, Department of Dermatology, University Muenster, Germany, for providing the clinical pictures.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Dermatology, University of Muenster, Von-Esmarch-Strasse 58, 48149, Muenster, Germany

    Annegret Kuhn

  2. Division of Immunogenetics, Tumorimmunology Program, German Cancer Research Center, 69120, Heidelberg, Germany

    Annegret Kuhn & Aysche Landmann

Authors
  1. Annegret Kuhn
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  2. Aysche Landmann
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Annegret Kuhn .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, Monash University, Clayton, Victoria, Australia

    Ian R. Mackay

  2. Center for Autoimmune Disease Research, Department of Molecular Microbiology and Immunology, Department of Pathology, Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, MD, USA

    Noel R. Rose

  3. The Feinstein Institute for Medical Research, Manhasset, NY, USA

    Betty Diamond

  4. The Feinstein Institute for Medical Research, Manhasset, NY, USA

    Anne Davidson

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Kuhn, A., Landmann, A. (2014). Skin in Systemic Lupus Erythematosus. In: Mackay, I.R., Rose, N.R., Diamond, B., Davidson, A. (eds) Encyclopedia of Medical Immunology. Springer, New York, NY. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-0-387-84828-0_378

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