Neonatal lupus erythematosus. Report of four cases with review of the literature.

We report four newborn infants with a distinctive evanescent cutaneous eruption that clinically and histologically resembled lupus erythematosus; two of the mothers had undifferentiated connective tissue disease. The tendency for lesions to occur in a periorbital location and the association of prominent telangiectasias were characteristic clinical signs in our patients. Immunoglobulin deposition at the basement membrane was demonstrated in one patient. Cytogenetic studies, done to exclude Bloom syndrome, revealed only nonspecific chromosomal abnormalities. A brief review of the literature, with speculations on the possible relationship of these changes to the occurrence of connective tissue disease in the mothers, is included in the discussion.