So far not very freguent therapeutic attempts, mostly without control groups, in severe cases of SLE which did not respond to previous standard treatment with cytostatic immunosuppressive prepa- rations revealed that small doses of cyclosporin combined with steroids (and occasionally combined with other immunosuppressive drugs) may lead to long-term improvement or remission of the disease, incl. the reduction in dose of corticosteroids. Particularly significant clinical effects were observed when cyclosporin was administered along with steroids to patients with severe lupus nephritis. Focused on this problem the author mentions 13 hitherto available published studies (1989–98) on the treatment of lupus nephritis with cyclosporin. In these clinical trials improvement is reported – remission of the renal disease in 60–100 % of the treated patients. From this ensues that it is useful to administer this drug to patients with serious forms of SLE, in particular with renal involvement who do not respond to the usual treatment or develop toxic manifestations after this treatment. Nevertheless, whenever the doctor is to decide on the use of cyclosporin in these patients, he must assume in addition to the potential favourable effect in individual cases also a possible toxic effect on the kidneys, in particular if the drug is administered for more than two years. Thus further controlled and randomized studies are essential to obtain final information.

        Key words: cyclosporin, SLE, treatment