Chronic cutaneous lupus erythematosus (DLE)--a clinical and laboratory investigation of 80 patients.

Clinical and laboratory data are presented from a study of a group of 80 patients with chronic cutaneous discoid lupus erythematosus. These data support the contention that if one selects patients with chronic scarring DLE who have no evidence by history or physical examination of extracutaneous involvement, then only a small percentage of patients will have detectable immunologic derangements. It is apparent that the clinical expression of lupus erythematosus depends, in part, upon the nature of the host's immune response.