Reply

Editor,

We would like to thank Dr Weekitt Kittisupamongkol (2009) for his comments regarding the diagnostic criteria for systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE) used in our paper (Lin et al. 2009). We agree that the diagnostic criteria were updated in 1997.

The diagnoses of the underlying disease (SLE) in our patients were made before and after the optic neuritis attacks by the rheumatologists at our hospital. We reconfirmed the diagnoses of SLE in these patients with the rheumatologists. Four of our patients with optic neuritis were diagnosed with SLE before 1997, according to the 1982 revised criteria (Tan et al. 1982). The other four patients were diagnosed with SLE after 1997 using the 1997 update of the revised criteria (Hochberg 1997). The positive findings in our eight patients did not include the positive lupus erythematosus (LE) cell preparation or positive antiphospholipid antibody. The prevalence of SLE-associated optic neuritis in our study would not be changed by applying these two diagnostic criteria for SLE.