Systemic lupus-like syndrome induced by methyldopa therapy.

Pleural pericarditis, fever, and a positive reaction for antinuclear antibody developed in a 50-year-old white woman while she was receiving methyldopa (500 mg daily). After withdrawal of the drug, there was complete resolution of the clinical signs and symptoms, as well as normalization of the patient's antinuclear antibody titer. To our knowledge, this is the first reported case of a clinical lupus-like syndrome induced by therapy with methyldopa.