History of Lupus

Table of Contents

13th Century - First mention of the "butterfly rashes" on the malar (above the cheeks) part of the face.

13th Century - The term "Lupus" which is Latin for wolf is attributed to Rogerius a physician who used the term to describe the facial lesions that resembled the bites and scratches made by a wolf's attack.

19th Century - Thomas Bateman, Cazenave, and Moriz Kaposi describe the various dermatologic features of Lupus.

1833 - Cazenave describes what is now known as discoid lesions for the first time.

1846 - Von Hebra describes the butterfly rash for the first time.

1856 - Von Hebra publishes the first illustrations of Lupus Erythematosus in his Atlas of Skin Disease.

1872 - Kaposi first describes the systemic nature of the disease. He further suggests that there are two types of Lupus, the discoid form and the disseminated form.

1894 - Payne first discusses the usefulness of quinine in treating Lupus.

1904 - The disseminated or systemic form of Lupus are firmly established by the work of Osler in Baltimore and Jadassohn in Vienna.

1908 - Alfred Kraus and Carl Bohac describe "lupic pneumonia" recognizing lung involvement.

1923 - Emanuel Libman and Benjamin Sacks recognize non-infectious endocarditis.

1939 - Leukopenia and hypersensitivity to sunlight are first described in cases of Lupus Erythematosus.

1948 - Hargraves and colleagues discover the LE cell resulting in the application of immunology to the study of Lupus.

1948 - Phillip Hench discovers cortisone providing the greatest therapy for Lupus to date.

6/30/48 - Buffered aspirin (anti-clotting) approved to treat Lupus.

1950s - Moore in Baltimore first associate Lupus with the false positive syphilis test.

10/30/49 - Chloroquine (anti-malarial) approved to treat Lupus

1952 - Immunosuppressives are first used to treat Lupus.

1954 - Leonhardt first recognize familial occurrence of Lupus.

1954 - The Cleveland Clinic first discover Drug-induced Lupus.

1955 - A derivative of cortisone, prednisone, is synthesized.

2/21/55 - Metocorten (Prednisone) approved to treat Lupus.

4/18/55 - Plaquenil (anti-malarial) approved to treat Lupus.

1958 - Friou apply the technique of using indirect immunofluorescence to demonstrate the presence of antinuclear antibodies in the blood developing the ANA test.

11/20/58 - Quinacrine (anti-malarial) becomes the last drug approved to treat Lupus by the FDA.

1971 - A committee of North American rheumatologists meet to establish criteria for diagnosing SLE.

1977, Sept. 18-24 - The first Lupus awareness observance occurred in 1977 after President Carter signed Public Law 95-72.

1982 - The American College of Rheumatology's diagnostic criteria are revised.