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| | Title: | What is Lupus? | | Article: |
Lupus is an autoimmune disease with chronic
inflammation. Your own immune system attacks your body
by mistake. Collection of your immune cells is the
military unit of fighters against germs, viruses,
parasites and other bugs. However, autoimmune disease
drives the immune system out of control. Your
defenders now attack your own body, not bugs.
The immune system is very complex. One of the
mechanisms that the immune system uses to fight
infections is the production of antibodies. Patients
with lupus produce antibodies against own body rather
than infectious agents. That causes problems with
skin, heart, joints, lungs, kidneys, and nervous
system. Lupus affects many sites of the body. Everyone
is different. Somebody may have fever and swollen
joints. Another patient may have kidney problem. A
third one has just a rash. Lupus may affect two or
three body parts.
The skin involvement is named discoid lupus. Red rash
appear on face, scalp, or elsewhere.
Disease of internal organs has name of Systemic Lupus
Erythematosus (SLE). It is the most common form.
Drug-induced lupus is triggered by a medicine
Lupus is more common in women. It can start at any
age. Commonly, suffering patients are 20 to 50 years
old.
Sun exposure causes subacute cutaneous lupus
erythematosus
Neonatal lupus is a rare lupus of newborns
Almost one million of Americans had lupus.
What Causes Lupus?
Many factors cause lupus. Genes, viruses, ultraviolet
light, environment, stress, and certain medicines play
some role. Autoimmune diseases in families are more
common among relatives.
Drug-induced lupus most often caused by hydralazine,
quinidine, procainamide, phenytoin, isoniazide and
d-penicillamine. SLE usually stops when the
medications are stopped.
Women may worse symptoms just before menstrual
periods. Supposedly, female hormones play a role in
the SLE development. 9 out of 10 SLE patients are
women.
Experiments in mice gave a clue that lack of a special
ferment that removes DNA debris may have important
role in the SLE pathogenesis.
Another fact telling about the role of hereditary
causes is that African women get lupus three times
more often than white women. The same goes for
Hispanic and Asian women. They also have more severe
condition usually. Hispanic and African American
patients have more, strokes and heart problems at a
younger age. | | Author: | Aleksandr Kavokin, MD, PhD | | System: | Skin | | Subject: | Lupus | | Abstract: | Lupus affects many sites of the body. | | Website: | www.kavokin.com | | Time: | 21:55 | | Reference: | www.rdoctor.com | | Reference 2: | |
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Articles by Aleksandr Kavokin, MD, PhD
Doctor-Robot (Free section)