LAUSR

We appreciated the comments by Ugarte-Gil and co-authors1 on our report dealing with lupus low disease activity state (LLDAS) in Caucasian patients.2 We agree that Caucasian patients with systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE) have a better prognosis compared with non-Caucasian ones, but, in our opinion, race does not fully elucidate the different results in terms of prevalence of low disease activity and remission obtained in the studies by Zen et al 2 and Ugarte-Gil et al .3 The different design of the studies is more relevant than race in explaining the divergent results. Indeed, the Grupo Latino Americano De Estudio del Lupus (GLADEL) study3 analysed an inception cohort of patients shortly after the disease onset (median disease duration 0.3 years), and the authors assessed remission and low disease activity status (LDAS) during the first years of follow-up. …