How does one assess and monitor patients with systemic lupus erythematosus in daily clinical practice?

Systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE) is a multisystem autoimmune rheumatic disease (ARD) characterized by flares and remissions. SLE has protean and often complex manifestations, necessitating careful clinical assessment. However, it is important to remember that not all clinical problems reported by a lupus patient are due to the disease. Some may be a consequence of therapy and others may be unrelated to lupus. Therefore it is important to understand the totality of the effect of the disease on the patient. In order to do this measures are needed which distinguish current, potentially reversible disease activity, permanent organ damage and the effect of the disease on the patients' health status. Several measures are in current use in clinical trials, but not all are suitable for use in the routine clinical setting. This chapter discusses the current measures available to assess disease activity and damage in SLE. Copyright 2002 Elsevier Science Ltd.