Plaquenil in the treatment of discoid lupus erythematosus; a preliminary report.

Despite adequately documented evidence of the effectiveness of the antimalarials quinacrine and chloroquine in the treatment of discoid lupus erythematosus, * a significant number of patients receiving these drugs derive little or no benefit from them, either because of side-effects of sufficient severity to compel discontinuance of medication, or simply because of lack of therapeutic effect. The desirability of a drug with greater therapeutic response, better tolerance, and less toxicity was evident, so when preliminary laboratory studies with Plaquenil † revealed such advantageous properties in malaria, clinical evaluation of this drug in the treatment of discoid lupus erythematosus seemed logical. DESCRIPTION OF THE DRUG Plaquenil or WIN 1258 (7-chloro-4-[4-(N-ethyl-N-β-hydroxyethylamino)-1-methylbutylamino]quinoline) is a 4-aminoquinoline similar to chloroquine but differs from the latter in that a hydroxyethyl group is substituted for one of the ethyl groups on the tertiary amino nitrogen