Drug-induced lupus erythematosus

Abstract

This article presents a clinical case in which a patient observed by neurologists with a diagnosis of neuropathy and treated with anticonvulsants and antidepressants developed new clinical manifestations and laboratory changes characteristic of systemic lupus erythematosus. A clinical version emerged that the neurological changes were the disease onset, followed by the development of the remaining clinical and laboratory symptoms (the diagnosis fully met the 2019 EULAR criteria — a score of 16 points, 10 points are sufficient to make a diagnosis). However, after a very short and low-dose therapy with methylprednisolone and hydroxychloroquine and withdrawal of anticonvulsants, there was a rapid recovery of specific antibodies and improvement of clinical symptoms, which allowed assuming drug-induced lupus erythematosus in this patient. Currently, the list of drugs that can cause this problem includes more than 100 drugs.