Verrucous and/or hypertrophic lesions occasionally occur in patients with lupus erythematosus. It has been suggested that these patients have skin disease which is characterized by chronicity and resistance to therapy other than intralesional corticosteroids. We studied 8 patients with chronic cutaneous (discoid) lupus erythematosus and 1 patient with papulosquamous subacute cutaneous lupus erythematosus with verrucous and/or hypertrophic lesions. Serologic, immunogenetic, and clinical data were gathered to confirm the distinctiveness of this subset and to seek specific laboratory correlates.