THE ASSOCIATION OF THE 2 ANTIMALARIALS CHLOROQUINE AND QUINACRINE FORTREATMENT-RESISTANT CHRONIC AND SUBACUTE CUTANEOUS LUPUS-ERYTHEMATOSUS

Antimalarials are the first line in the treatment of chronic and subac ute cutaneous lupus erythematosus (LE). However, some patients show ei ther no or only minor improvement on antimalarial monotherapy. We trea ted 14 patients (9 with chronic LE and 5 with subacute cutaneous LE) w ho had poorly responded to chloroquine or hydroxychloroquine with an a ssociation of chloroquine and quinacrine. The initial dose was: chloro quine 100 mg 3x/day and quinacrine 65 mg 3x/day. The skin lesions impr oved significantly or cleared totally in 5 of the 9 patients with chro nic LE and in all the 5 patients with subacute cutaneous LE. These fin dings suggest that a chloroquine-quinacrine combination may sometimes be superior to the usual antimalarial monotherapy, especially for suba cute LE. If chloroquine or hydroxychloroquine fails to control chronic or subacute cutaneous LE, chloroquine-quinacrine is worthy to be trie d.