Abstract: The records of 160 cases of systemic lupus erytheinatosus followed up in our hospital between 1968-1980 were analysed.They were compared with the clinical data of Dubois' 520 cases.The incidence of pericarditis,pleurisy,adenopathy,discoilupus lesions and Raynaud's phenomenon of our series were lower than that of Dubois',while hepatomegaly,spleiiomegaly,interstitial pneumonia and myocarditis in our series,were higher than that of Dubois'.The diagnosis,treatment and prognosis of SLE were discussed.We consider that the key in treatment of SLE is appropriate use of corticosteroid therapy and combined use with traditional Chinese medicine,the latter may be benificial to loweting the dosage of corticostecoids.The mortaliy in our series was 15%.The cumulative,5-year survival rate was 81.07% and the 10-year survival rate was 75.78%.Patients with CNS damage or renal involvement had poor prognosis.Recently;because of'the earlier diagnosis and the improvement of treatment; the prognosis of SLE has bees,greatly improved.