Promising research led by investigators at Hospital for Special Surgery may offer hope for women with lupus who once thought that pregnancy was too risky.

Results from the multicenter National Institutes of Health (NIH) funded PROMISSE initiative, being presented Monday, Nov. 7 and then during a press conference on Tuesday, Nov. 8, during the American College of Rheumatology's 2011 Annual Scientific Meeting in Chicago, show that most women with stable lupus can have successful pregnancies.

Atorvastatin therapy was found to be ineffective in reducing atherosclerosis progression in children and adolescents with systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE). Results of the Atherosclerosis Prevention in Pediatric Lupus Erythematosus (APPLE) Trial, now available in Arthritis & Rheumatism, a journal published by Wiley-Blackwell on behalf of the American College of Rheumatology (ACR), report that the statin therapy did trend toward positive effect of treatment and may benefit patients with more severe SLE who were not included in the trial.