[Lupus cystitis and peritonitis successfully treated with intravenous cyclophosphamide pulse therapy: a case report]

The patient, a 35-year-old woman, had been diagnosed as SLE since she developed butterfly rash, arthritis and hair loss with positive antinuclear antibody, anti-DNA antibody, and LE cells in 1989, and treated with daily 20 mg prednisolone (PSL). She had been suffering from nausea, vomiting and waterly diarrhea since 1992. In June 1995, she noted pollakisuria and sense of residual urine, followed by dysuria and nocturia in October. She was admitted to our hospital in January 1996 with progressive gastrointestinal and urinary symptoms. Computerized tomography (CT) depicted thickening of the wall of intestine and bladder, diminished volume of bladder, and bilateral hydronephrosis and hydroureter. Biopsy of the bladder revealed erosion of mucosa and moderate infiltration with inflammatory cells. The diagnosis of lupus cystitis and peritonitis was made and she was initially given intravenous methylprednisolon pulse therapy (500 mg/day) for 3 days, and then switched to 100 mg of daily intravenous PSL. She responded partially to this regimen, but gradually developed gastrointestinal and urinary symptoms again when PSL was tapered down to 70 mg/day. Therefore, monthly intravenous cyclophosuphamide pulse therapy was started. With this therapy, her bladder and bowel symptoms improved, and then the thickness of her bladder and intestinal wall, and the bladder volume normalized. Five months after institution of therapy, PSL was successfully tapered down to 30 mg/day and she was discharged. Intravenous cyclophosphamidepulse therapy is a choice of treatment for steroid-resistant lupus cystitis and peritonitis.