OCCASIONAL SERIES - LUPUS AROUND THE WORLD - THE CHILEAN EXPERIENCE OF SYSTEMIC LUPUS-ERYTHEMATOSUS

The Chilean experience with SLE began more than 40 years ago. The firs t series was published in 1958 with 108 patients. Lupus hair was descr ibed for the first time as a symptom that highly suggested SLE at that time. Subsequent studies have dealt with different clinical aspects o f the disease. The description of silent nephropathy in SLE and inspir atory muscle dysfunction as a cause of unexplained dyspnoea have been relevant contributions to the understanding of this condition. Patient survival has improved over the last decades from 13% at 5 years in 19 59 up to 87% in 1994. Reasons for this improved survival are probably related to better diagnosis and management of the severely ill patient s. However, in spite of this, the incidence of infections in our patie nts often contributes to fatal outcome. Recently, some studies have be en published related to the basic pathogenic mechanisms of this diseas e.