Occasional series: lupus around the world. The Chilean experience of systemic lupus erythematosus.

The Chilean experience with SLE began more than 40 years ago. The first series was published in 1958 with 108 patients. Lupus hair was described for the first time as a symptom that highly suggested SLE at that time. Subsequent studies have dealt with different clinical aspects of the disease. The description of silent nephropathy in SLE and inspiratory muscle dysfunction as a cause of unexplained dyspnoea have been relevant contributions to the understanding of this condition. Patient survival has improved over the last decades from 13% at 5 years in 1959 up to 87% in 1994. Reasons for this improved survival are probably related to better diagnosis and management of the severely ill patients. However, in spite of this, the incidence of infections in our patients often contributes to fatal outcome. Recently, some studies have been published related to the basic pathogenic mechanisms of this disease.