No abstract

The associations found are in agreement with biological mechanisms and clinical observations. As there is a paucity of real-life data on adverse effects of glucocorticoids prescribed to unselected groups of patients, these data may help the clinician to adapt therapy with glucocorticoids accordingly and improve the benefit-risk ratio.

The costs of illness are high in all four diseases, with a strong effect of functional status on total costs. Indirect costs differ by the factor 3, based on whether the HCA or the FCA is used.

Therapeutic Level IV. See Instructions for Authors for a complete description of levels of evidence.

HLA-DR(high)CD27(++)CD20(-)CD19(dim) plasmablasts represent a more precise indicator of lupus activity and suggest that there is an overproduction or lack of negative selection of these cells in SLE.