CDASI: Cutaneous Dermatomyositis Area and Severity Index JDM: juvenile dermatomyositis MTX: methotrexate mPSL: methylprednisolone PSL: prednisolone INTRODUCTION Juvenile dermatomyositis (JDM) is a chronic inflammatory disease characterized by typical skin lesions and muscle weakness, which occurs in children and adolescents younger than 16 years. JDM is classified into 3 clinical types accordin...

A meta-analysis was performed to evaluate the efficacy of methylprednisolone pulse therapy for Graves' ophthalmopathy. Eight studies involving 376 patients were included. A higher effective rate was found for patients treated with intravenous glucocorticoids (IVGC) over oral glucocorticoids (OGC) (risk ratio [RR] = 1.48; 95% confidence interval [CI] = 1.18-1.86). The combined IVGC and orbital r...

BACKGROUND Inflammation of the optic nerve is a common cause of visual loss due to optic nerve pathology. OBJECTIVE To report the clinical features, demographic pattern and response to pulse steroid therapy in patients with idiopathic optic neuritis in eastern Nepal. MATERIALS AND METHODS The hospital data of patients with idiopathic optic neuritis admitted to the department of ophthalmolog...

A 50-year-old Japanese woman, a patient with systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE) complicated with chronic lupus peritonitis, developed massive small intestinal hemorrhaging. She was treated with intravenous pulse of methylprednisolone, intravenous pulse of cyclophosphamide (IVCY), and immunoabsorption, but the peritonitis was refractory to these treatments. Subsequently, she was treated with ora...

tures and functional outcomes. Lupus 1996; 5: 294-9. 8. MOK CC, LAU CS, CHAN YET, WONG RWS: Acute transverse myelopathy in systemic lupus erythematosus: Clinical presentation, treatment and outcome. J Rheumatol 1998; 25: 467-73. 9. OSAWA H, YAMABE H, KAIZUKA M, et al.: Systemic lupus erythematosus associated with transverse myelitis and parkinsonism symptoms. Lupus 1997; 6: 613-5. 10. BAVILE L,...

We report a case of Churg-Strauss syndrome (CSS) complicated by severe cardiac failure and peripheral neuropathy. Two courses of methylprednisolone pulse therapy were unable to control the disease activity. Repeated intravenous administration of high-dose human immunoglobulin (IVIg) was added together with intravenous cyclophosphamide pulse therapy (IVCY), and the patient's cardiac function and...

Posterior reversible encephalopathy syndrome (PRES) has been reported in association with hypertension, renal failure, transplantation and immunosuppressives [1]. However, reports of PRES in conjunction with SLE are sparse [2]. Majority of these patients had lupus nephritis and hypertension [3]. Recent reports have shown a stringent association of PRES with hypertension in SLE patients and resp...