Steroid therapy in clinically stable but serologically active systemic lupus erythematosus prevents severe disease flares

Evaluation of: Tseng CE, Buyon JP, Kim M et al. The effect of moderate-dose corticosteroids in preventing severe flares in patients with serologically active, but clinically stable, systemic lupus erythematosus: findings of a prospective, randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled trial. Arthritis Rheum. 54, 3623-3632 (2006). Systemic lupus erythematosus is an autoimmune disease of unknown origin. Flares and remissions are commonly seen in clinical settings. These clinical flares can have several degrees of severity, some of which require intensive immunosuppressive treatment and/or hospitalization. Clinicians treating these patients have looked at different strategies for prevention, early detection and prompt treatment of a lupus flare. Clinical information and laboratory findings have been proposed to reach these goals and preventive steroid adjustment has even been used in some cases without convincing results. This paper presents results from a controlled, multicenter, double-blind clinical trial evaluating the effectiveness of short-term corticosteroid treatment for preventing severe flares in which elevations of C3a by 50% were accompanied by a 25% increase in the anti-double-stranded DNA titer in patients with inactive or stable/active systemic lupus erythematosus. Results suggest that this strategy can prevent severe lupus flares.