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Known causes of eosinophilia include parasitic infections, allergic diseases, autoimmune diseases, neoplasms, and drug allergies.[1] Corticosteroid derivatives such as prednisone, prednisolone, methylprednisolone, dexamethasone, etc. are often used as first-line drugs to ameliorate the condition.[2] The ESR is used as an evaluation of lupus activity in rheumatic diseases. This report documents a patient with systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE) in whom accelerated ESR and eosinophilia were resolved by substituting prednisolone for methylprednisolone.

To add to our knowledge of collagen diseases, plasma fibronectin (FN) in patients with systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE) has been measured, and it was determined that the plasma FN value in those with SLE was 454 +/- 36 micrograms/ml, is significantly higher than the FN value in normal subjects (234 +/- 21 micrograms/ml) than that of patients with FN value of patients with active SLE was significantly higher (591 +/- 46 micrograms/ml) that of the patients with non-active SLE (287 +/- 31 micrograms/ml). The plasma FN value of SLE patients was also seen to be associated with the peripheral blood platelet count and with the dose level of the corticosteroid hormone administered to patients. In active SLE patients, it was similarly found that the plasma FN value had a significant correlation with the peripheral blood lymphocyte count and with the dose level of the corticosteroid hormone given to patients. Since the plasma FN value is known to be high in untreated SLE patients, it was felt that the increase of the FN value in SLE patients is not due to the effect of the corticosteroid but to the disease itself.

A 34-year-old Japanese woman developed spiking fever, splenomegaly, arthritis, neutrophilia, hyperferritinaemia (22517 ng/ml), elevated C-reactive protein (9.1 mg/ml) and severe thrombocytopenia (1.7 x 10(4)/microl). The patient had depressed antithrombin III activity and abnormally high concentrations of both fibrin degradation products and thrombin-antithrombin complexes. This condition was resistant to high-dose prednisolone therapy (120 mg/day) and non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs. We initiated oral methotrexate therapy (7.5 mg/week, orally) with a favourable outcome. The patient's spiking fever subsided on the first day of methotrexate administration. Elevated levels of ferritin and C-reactive protein in the sera rapidly normalised. Methotrexate rapidly improved the disease state which suggested that methotrexate act via modulation of cytokine production or secretion.