Pulmonary involvement in systemic lupus erythematosus

In the course of an ample study of collagen diseases carried out in the "N. Gh. Lupu" Institute of Internal Medicine--Bucharest over a long period, a group of 608 patients with systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE) hospitalized between 1974 and 1986 formed the object of the present study. Of these patients 18% presented pulmonary alterations due to SLE and 3.9% lung diseases of other etiology. The types of pulmonary involvement due to SLE were: pleurisy, interstitial pneumonia, diaphragmatic myopathy. Latent pulmonary damage could also be diagnosed in 8 patients. Most of the patients (94.1%) were females and had been hospitalized several times. Concomitantly with pulmonary damage other organ involvements have also been observed. Complex investigation of respiratory function performed in a selected group of patients revealed: restrictive syndrome, decrease of the gas transfer factor, increase of elastic recoil, hypoxemia on exercise. In most of the cases (92%) the pulmonary diseases had a chronic evolution. The treatment used was corticosteroids in 60% of the cases investigated.