Infection in Systemic Lupus Erythematosus

Infectious complications in SLE were investigated in 147 well-documented SLE patients during a 12 years period (1972-1983). Ninty one moderate or severe infections were obserbed in 68 patients, and 4 of them died of infections; 2 of septicemia and 2 of pneumonia. More than two thirds of total infections was due to intracellular micro-organismsand particularly high incidence of herpes zoster was seen up to 28% of the total infections. In the study on factors affecting the incidence of infection in SLE, no relationship between dosage of corticosteroids or disease activity in SLE and the increased susceptibility to infections of SLE patients was revealed. The CRP value may be elevated higher in bacterial infections than in SLE without infection. The serum levels of complement (CH50) are usually stationary or elevated during infectious complications in SLE. These parameters are useful indeces to differentiate infections from exacerbation of SLE.