[Neonatal lupus erythematosus: 4 cases and clinical review]

Neonatal lupus erythematosus (NLE) is an infrequent disease in newborns caused by the transplacental passage of maternal Anti-Ro/SSA, Anti-La/SSB and/or Anti-U1 RNP antibodies. The most common manifestations are cutaneous and cardiac. We carried out a retrospective study of cases of NLE diagnosed in the last 10 years at the Hospital Universitario Insular in Gran Canaria. Complete data was obtained for 4 patients. Three cases had circulating Anti-Ro antibodies in the mother and in the newborns, while in the fourth case they were Anti-RNP. Two mothers were diagnosed with systemic lupus, one with mixed connective tissue disease and the other with leucocytoclastic vasculitis. The skin lesions consisted of urticaria-like and desquamative lesions. One patient presented with ulceration. The histological study of the urticaria-like lesions showed a non-specific perivascular infiltrate; the desquamative lesions were consistent with subacute lupus erythematosus.