Objective: To analyze the clinical features, therapy and outcome of systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE) combined with lupus myelopathy (LM).
Methods: Ten SLE patients combined with LM treated in Department of Rheumatology and Immunology, People's Hospital from 1990 to 2011 were retrospectively analyzed and 43 cases of SLE combined with LM reported home and abroad were reviewed.
Results: All the ten patients were women with age of 23 - 53 (36.9 ± 3.4) years old and duration of 1 - 18 years. MRI of spinal cord revealed long T2 signal in one case, and normal in two cases. Seven patients received methylprednisolone pulse plus cyclophosphamide (CTX), two were given glucocorticoid pulse only, and one was given moderate dosage of glucocorticoid, CTX and plasma exchange (PE). The results revealed that four patients received complete recovery, four received partial recovery, and two received no improvement.
Conclusions: LM is a rare but severe complication of SLE with poor prognosis, which usually occurs in early phase of young SLE patients. Pulse methylprednisolone and CTX may be effective. Early and active treatment may improve the outcome.