The cause of acute disseminated lupus erythematosus is still obscure. The clinical picture, characterized by septic temperature, prostration, leukopenia, splenomegaly, arthralgia, albuminuria, microscopic hematuria and an invariably fatal termination, offers at least suggestive evidence that infection, whether focal or systemic, is an important etiologic factor. This deduction, perhaps, offers more justification for the use of sulfanilamide and products allied to it in therapy than is found in many other conditions subjected to this therapy during the phase of hyperenthusiasm invariably encountered during the early use of any newly described therapeutic agent.
Conflicting reports are noted in the literature regarding the therapeutic efficacy of sulfanilamide in acute disseminated lupus erythematosus. Wollenberg1 reported improvement in a case of exanthematous acute disseminated lupus erythematosus. Anderson2 reported spectacular recovery in a case of acute disseminated lupus erythematosus in which dissemination occurred in a discoid type of lupus erythematosus after undue exposure to