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RESEARCH PRODUCT

Cutaneous Lupus Erythematosus

subject

description

Lupus erythematosus (LE) is an inflammatory autoimmune disease, characterized by a heterogeneous clinical presentation. The skin lesions are one of the most frequent symptoms of the disease and present with a broad spectrum of LE-nonspecific and LE-specific cutaneous manifestations. Therefore, the development of a classification for skin lesions in the disease has proven difficult. For example, the LE-nonspecific cutaneous manifestations include livedo racemosa, thrombophlebitis, and leukocytoclastic vasculitis and can be associated with high disease activity and systemic organ involvement. The LE-specific cutaneous manifestations encompass the subtypes of cutaneous lupus erythematosus (CLE): acute CLE, subacute CLE, and chronic CLE, such as discoid LE, chilblain LE, and LE profundus/panniculitis. In the “Duesseldorf Classification”, LE tumidus is included as a separate entity, named intermittent CLE. In this chapter, we describe the characteristic features of the various cutaneous manifestations of the disease.