Lupus – the cold, hard facts

Wong, NWK
Ng, VT-Y
Ibrahim, S
Slessarev, M
Chandran, V

¹Department of Medicine, McMaster University, Hamilton, Canada; ²Department of Medicine, University of Toronto, Toronto, Canada; ³Division of Rheumatology, Department of Medicine, University of Toronto, Toronto, Canada; and ⁴Toronto Western Hospital, University Health Network, Toronto, Canada

Newton Wong, Internal Medicine Residency Office, McMaster University, Health Science Centre 3W10A, 1280 Main Street, West Hamilton, ON CANADA L8S 4L8. Email: [email protected]

Received July 22, 2013

Received in revised form January 29, 2014

Accepted March 11, 2014

Lupus 23(8):p 837-839, July 2014. | DOI: 10.1177/0961203314530485

Systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE) is a multisystem chronic disease with a multitude of clinical presentations. We review and synthesize how an environmental insult (exposure to extreme cold for a short duration) and endogenous (antiphospholipid antibody syndrome, SLE vasculitis) insults in a susceptible young female with lupus (peripheral arterial disease, smoking, SLE) led to a perfect storm resulting in catastrophic injuries (frostbite).