Treatment of severe thrombocytopenia in systemic lupus erythematosus with intravenous gammaglobulin.

Three patients with lupus with severe auto-immune thrombocytopenia were treated with high doses of intravenous gammaglobulin. In the patient with active disease a prolonged but partial response with respect to platelet counts was observed. In the two other patients who had no disease activity other than thrombocytopenia at the time of intravenous gammaglobulin treatment a minor (and only transient) increase in platelet counts was seen after treatment. No change in the state of disease activity nor in the levels of antinuclear antibodies, circulating immune complexes, nor complement C3/4 was observed in these three patients after treatment with intravenous gammaglobulin.