[Treatment of discoid lupus erythematosus with sulfasalazine: 11 cases].

Abstract

Salazosulfapyridine, or sulfasalazine, is composed of a derivative of 5-aminosalicylic acid and a sulfamide fraction, sulfapyridine. It is only marginally used in dermatology except for psoriasis. Its efficacy in chronic lupus erythematosus has been reported in one case. We confirmed the role of this compound in the treatment of chronic lupus erythematosus. The rare observations of induced lupus and development of antinuclear antibodies are not a contraindication, but require close regular clinical and biological surveillance. The potential risk is that possible hypersensitivity could lead to reserving sulfasalazine for severe resistant chronic lupus erythematosus after failure with antimalarials and thalidomide. Nevertheless, our study demonstrates that the slow acetylator phenotype predicts immunoallergic events, as observed by other authors, and would be a factor predicting nonresponse. If these results are confirmed by other studies, it would be possible to propose sulfasalazine as a treatment for discoid lupus erythematosus in rapid acetylators.