Natural history of disease activity and damage in patients with cutaneous lupus erythematosus.

BACKGROUND

Long-term studies characterizing disease course of cutaneous lupus erythematosus (CLE) patients on standard-of-care treatments are lacking.

OBJECTIVE

We characterized and compared disease course of CLE patients using Cutaneous Lupus Erythematosus Disease Area and Severity Index (CLASI).

METHODS

In total, 83 CLE patients with CLASI scores collected from ≥3 study visits within 2 years had disease activity and damage trends calculated by average change scores (ACS). Trends were classified as improved (ACS ≤-3), worsened (ACS ≥3), or stable (-3 < ACS < 3). Linear regression models compared CLASI trends between groups.

RESULTS

Most patients (72.73%) with initial CLASI activity (CLASI-A) scores >9 (N = 33) had improved disease activity versus 14.00% of those with initial CLASI-A scores ≤9 (N = 50). Linear regression analyses showed significant improvement in CLASI-A scores in patients of minority races (P < .05), with baseline CLASI-A scores >9 (P < .0001), baseline CLASI damage (CLASI-D) scores ≥10 (P = .0001), and CLE disease duration ≤1 year (P = .01). Of 28 patients with baseline CLASI-D scores ≥10, 35.71% had improvements in damage, while 5.26% of patients with initial CLASI-D scores of 5-9 (N = 19) and 0% with initial CLASI-D scores <5 (N = 36) (P = .0005) had improvements.

LIMITATIONS

Limitations include small sample size.

CONCLUSION

Baseline CLASI-A score >9, minority race, and short disease duration predict CLE disease activity improvement. A baseline CLASI-D score ≥10 is associated with disease damage improvement.