General Description
Systemic Lupus Erythematosus, SLE, is a chronic inflammatory disease that occurs when the body’s immune system attacks its own tissue and organs. Inflammation can affect many different body systems including joints, skin, kidneys, blood cells, brain, heart, and lungs. Lupus can be difficult to diagnose because the signs and symptoms, and a physical examination lead to a diagnosis. A facial rash across both cheeks resembling wings of butterfly is the most distinctive sign of lupus that occurs in many but not all cases. There is no cure for lupus and only treatments that can help control symptoms.
Pathophysiology
The inflammation caused by lupus can affect many areas of the body. It can cause serious kidney damage and
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The bone most commonly affected is the hip. Women with lupus have an increased risk of having a miscarriage. The risk of high blood pressure known as preeclampsia during pregnancy and preterm birth increases with lupus. Doctors recommend delaying pregnancy until the disease has been under control for at least six months to reduce these complications. Lupus results from a combination of genetics and environment. Inherited predisposition may develop the disease after contact with triggers. The cause for most cases is unknown. Potential triggers include sunlight, infections, and medications. Sun exposure may bring on lupus skin lesions or trigger an internal response. An infection can initiate lupus or cause a relapse in some people. Certain types of anti-seizure medications, blood pressure medications and antibiotics can trigger lupus. The symptoms of those with drug-induced lupus will go away once they stop taking the medication. Lupus is more common in women, African-Americans, Hispanics, and Asians and most often diagnosed between the ages of 15 and 40.
Symptoms
Blood and urine tests combined with signs and symptoms and a physical examination lead to a diagnosis. The most distinctive sign of lupus that occurs in many but not all cases is a facial rash across both cheeks resembling the wings of a butterfly. The most common signs and symptoms include: fatigue and fever,
Lupus is a potentially life threatening disease that effects about 1.5 million Americans. Lupus can effect many different parts of the body. Lupus is a type of autoimmune system disorder in which the body cannot distinguish the difference between foreign antibodies and its own organs. So basically what happens is that the body ends up attacking its own organs thinking they are foreign substances. (The Lupus Foundation of America)
Lupus is a chronic inflammatory disease of unknown cause that can affect virtually any part of the body. The medical term for Lupus is Systemic Lupus Erythematosus or better known as SLE. With Lupus there is a malfunction in some of the cells of the immune system. "In Lupus, the body overreacts to an unknown stimulus and makes to many antibodies, or proteins directed against body tissue. Thus, Lupus is called an autoimmune disease. ”#
Lupus is an autoimmune disease that attacks women between the ages of 15 and 40. It occurs less often in men than in women. The people affected by lupus vary depending on the country or region. In the US alone, the prevalence rate is highest among Asians of Hawaii, blacks of Caribbean origin, and Native Americans of the Sioux, Arapahoe, and Crow tribes. Lupus is a disease that affects the immune system. We can think of the immune system as an army within the body with hundreds of defenders (known as antibodies). They defend the body from attack by germs and viruses. In lupus, however, the immune system becomes overactive and creates antibodies that attack healthy tissues in the body, such as: the skin, kidneys, lungs, heart and brain.
Lupus does not have a known cause, and because of that it has no known cure. The exact cause of lupus is unknown, but scientists suspect that it is likely to be a combination of factors, people who contract lupus are probably genetically predisposed to lupus, and know that environmental factors such as infections, antibodies, ultraviolet light, extreme stress and certain drugs play a critical role in
Lupus is a rare and crippleing disease. This disease is as rare as it is hard to undertand. Lupus being a not well known disease is hard to pinpoint. This disease causes insufferable pain and body problems. Such a terrible disease causes syptoms like swelling muscles, joint pains, general inflamations, organ failures, and overall fatigue. Lupus is an autoimmune disease ( AKA the autoimmune sytem attacking itself). This autoimmune disease is most common in youge woman in birth bearing age. With little known reason
Drug-Induced Lupus is a drug like form of Lupus that is formed by taking a certain type of drug. While the more common form of lupus develops mostly in women, Drug-Induced Lupus is mostly developed in men. Drugs that are mostly affiliated with this form of Lupus include: Hydralazine, a treatment for high blood pressure, Isoniazid, treatment for tuberculosis and Procainamide, a treatment for irregular heart beats. The similar Lupus symptoms will disappear after six months of not taking these medications.
Lupus is a chronic, autoimmune disease that causes swelling, pain, and inflammation throughout the body. An autoimmune disease is when the white blood cells inside a person’s body cannot tell the difference between healthy tissue and foreign invaders. That cause the white blood cells to attack and kill the tissue in body systems, including organs like the heart, brain, lungs, and kidneys. When diagnosing for lupus it is extremely difficult. This is because the signs and symptoms of Lupus often imitate those of other diseases. The sign that differentiates Lupus from other diseases, is a facial rash that resembles a butterfly across the cheeks and nose. This is an often seen sign but it doesn’t always occur. There are several types of Lupus including
Most experts can agree that there are a number of factors that cause it; the causes of Lupus are from a combination of genetics and the environment. Sometimes people inherit what is called a “genetic predisposition” which means that they inherit the chance to eventually develop it. It is very hard to pinpoint one single source of cause that triggers Lupus like I mentioned before. Things in the environment like UV rays from the sun, or unrelated things like an infection or a pregnancy can trigger it. The symptoms of Lupus range from Extreme fatigue, headaches, photosensitivity, pain/swollen joints, and one clear indicator being a butterfly-shaped rash across the cheek or nose.
Systemic Lupus Erythematosus is an autoimmune disorder that cause the body to attack its own connective tissue. The diseases effects patients largely in the skin and is thought to be named after the fact that some patients have rashes that resemble a wolf. Lupus also is a disease that is uncommon, appearing in 0.1% of the population and a 9:1 ratio in retrospect of women to men who have the disease. A study of the disease was done by the university of Iowa in 2006 that compared the levels of protein in the blood of patients with Lupus to that of patients who didn’t. To go further, there were 30 participants in the trial and half of those thirty were patients without Lupus.
Lupus is a chronic inflammatory disease marked by its effect on various parts of the body, including the joints, skin, blood, and kidneys. It is a condition in which the body's immune system attacks its own cells and tissues, resulting in pain, inflammation, and often damage to organs. Lupus involves the immune system. The immune system makes antibodies that work to protect the body against foreign substances like viruses and bacteria. Such foreign bodies are called antigens. When a person has lupus, his or her body is unable to determine the difference between antigens and the individual's cells and body tissues. As such, the immune system creates antibodies against the individual's own tissues. These antibodies are called autoantibodies. Depending on the type of lupus, a wide range of symptoms may be experienced, from rashes, hair loss, and achy, swollen joints to fever, anemia, and abnormal blood clotting. Though the disease can affect many parts of the body, individuals usually experience symptoms in only a few organs. There is no known cure for lupus. However,
There are five different types of lupus: systemic lupus erythematosus, discoid lupus erythematosus, subacute cutaneous lupus erythematosus, drug-induced lupus, neonatal lupus. Systemic lupus erythematosus, or SLE, is the most common form of lupus. The exact cause of SLE is unknown; however, recent research has pointed to genetics as its main factor that is mostly triggered by environmental factors. While the exact gene that causes lupus is unknown, research has suggested that multiple genes factor into the development of SLE (What is Lupus? 2009). Two genes have been linked to SLE from human leukocyte antigens (HLA), DRB1*03 and DRB1*02, predominately in Caucasian and black populations. These HLA alleles have shown a strong connection
The medical community is still trying to determine the exact cause of SLE, which is unknown so far. It is proposed that there is likely an interaction between susceptible genes and environmental factors. Wallace (1995) believes that of those who carry lupus genes, only 10% will ever develop the disease. SLE is a
Systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE) is an autoimmune disease whereby the antibodies produced by the B cells attack the host’s own healthy tissues, leading up to inflammations especially on tissues that made up the skin, kidney and joints. SLE is an example of a genetic disease due to gene interactions. The definition of ‘gene interactions’ here is that more than one gene can cause the disease to be expressed in an individual. SLE is a complex autoimmune genetic disease not only because it could arise from the interactions of many different genes, but also because these gene interactions can contribute to either autosomal dominant
With the long term affects of Lupus, patients are recommended to limit sun exposure and use sunscreen to prevent flares, have good eating habits, get
As no lupus patients have similar symptoms, they don’t have an identical set of triggers. However, the common triggers include Stress, infection, sun exposure, or even seasonal flue. When you identify trigger within time, you can put in best efforts