title: Clinical course and prognosis of cutaneous lupus erythematosus.
abstract: Classical variants of specific cutaneous LE lesions are chronic discoid LE (CDLE) and subacute cutaneous LE (SCLE). CDLE and SCLE may appear at any age; however, the most common age of onset is between 20 and 40 years, with a female predominance of 3:1 in CDLE and 3-6:1 in SCLE. Nonspecific LE skin lesions such as generalized or acrolocalized vasculitis (4-30%), livedo reticularis (22-35%), and alopecia (38-78%) are frequently seen in patients with cutaneous LE. Other typical cutaneous LE subsets such as LE profundus/panniculitis, LE tumidus, urticaria vasculitis, hypertrophic LE, and bullous LE are rather rare variants. Butterfly rash and/or macular exanthema are characteristic skin lesions of systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE) rarely found in patients with cutaneous LE.
authors.affiliation: Department of Dermatology, University Medical Center Benjamin Franklin, The Free University of Berlin, Berlin, Germany. Prof.Tebbe@t-online.de
authors.forename: Beate
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Tebbe
mesh_terms: D018450:Disease Progression; D006801:Humans; D008178:Lupus Erythematosus, Cutaneous / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000473:pathology; D011379:Prognosis; D012720:Severity of Illness Index