Annals of the rheumatic diseases
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The outcome of patients admitted to intensive care units is known to be influenced by such factors as age, previous health status, severity of disease, and diagnosis. To estimate the outcome of such patients with systemic rheumatic diseases and to determine if the severity of these diseases unfavourably influences the prognosis at the time of admission to a medical intensive care unit, the clinical courses of all patients with systemic rheumatic disease admitted to two medical intensive care units between January 1978 and December 1988 were studied retrospectively. Sixty nine patients with systemic lupus erythematosus (n = 16), necrotising vasculitis (n = 19), rheumatoid arthritis (n = 19), and other systemic rheumatic diseases (n = 15) were included. ⋯ The death rate was relatively high and was mainly due to nosocomial infections. It was not different, however, from that of nonselected patients and the long term prognosis was highly favourable. This shows that the complications are often reversible, particularly infectious applications, and justifies admission to the medical intensive care unit of this group of patients.