Immunofluorescence skin test for lupus erythematosus. A correlative study between frequency and patterns of skin test...

We undertook a correlative study between the frequency and patterns of immunoglobulin deposits at the dermoepidermal junction of clinically normal skin and the morphologic features (histopathologic and immunopathologic) of the glomerular lesions and various immunologic measurements in 38 patients with systemic lupus erythematosus. Thirty-five (92.1%) showed a positive immunoglobulin band at the skin. A statistically significant (P less than .001) correlation was observed between the pattern of deposit and the duration of disease. The stippled pattern was found to be more common in those cases of less than one year's duration, while the thready pattern was more common in those cases lasting longer than one year. There seemed to be no significant relationship between either the frequency (P greater than .100) and pattern (P greater than 0.25) of the immunoglobulin band and the glomerular pathologic or other immunologic measurements.