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upus is a type of immune system disorder known as an autoimmune disease.
In autoimmune diseases, the body harms its own healthy cells and
tissues. This leads to inflammation and damage of various body tissues.
Lupus can affect many parts of the body, including the joints, skin,
kidneys, heart, lungs, blood vessels, and brain. Although people with
the disease may have many different symptoms, some of the most common
ones include extreme fatigue, painful or swollen joints (arthritis),
unexplained fever, skin rashes, and kidney problems. Lupus is also known
as a rheumatic disease. The rheumatic diseases are a group of disorders
that cause aches, pain, and stiffness in the joints, muscles, and bones. |
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At
present, there is no cure for lupus. However, the symptoms of lupus can
be controlled with appropriate treatment, and most people with the
disease can lead active, healthy lives. Lupus is characterized by
periods of illness, called flares, and periods of wellness, or
remission. Understanding how to prevent flares and how to treat them
when they do occur helps people with lupus maintain better health.
Intense research is underway and scientists funded by the NIH are
continuing to make great strides in understanding the disease, which
ultimately may lead to a cure.
Two of the
questions researchers are studying are who gets lupus and why. We know
that many more women than men have lupus. Lupus is three times more
common in black women than in white women and is also more common in
women of Hispanic, Asian, and Native American descent. In addition,
lupus can run in families, but the risk that a child or a brother or
sister of a patient also will have lupus is still quite low. It is
difficult to estimate how many people in the United States have the
disease because its symptoms vary widely and its onset is often hard to
pinpoint.
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Although
"lupus" is used as a broad term, there actually are several
kinds of lupus:
- Systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE), which is
the form of the disease that most people are referring to when they
say "lupus." The word "systemic" means the
disease can affect many parts of the body. The symptoms of SLE may
be mild or serious. Although SLE usually first affects people
between the ages of 15 and 45 years, it can occur in childhood or
later in life as well. This booklet focuses on SLE.
- Discoid lupus erythematosus primarily affects
the skin. A red, raised rash may appear on the face, scalp, or
elsewhere. The raised areas may become thick and scaly. The rash may
last for days or years and may recur. A small percentage of people
with discoid lupus later develop SLE.
- Drug-induced lupus refers to a form of lupus
caused by medication. It causes some symptoms similar to those of
SLE (arthritis, rash, fever, and chest pain, but not kidney disease)
that go away when the drug is stopped. Common medications that may
cause drug-induced lupus include hydralazine (Apresoline),
procainamide (Procan, Pronestyl), methyldopa (Aldomet), quinidine (Quinaglute),
isoniazid (INH), and some anti-seizure medications such as phenytoin
(Dilantin) or carbamazepine (Tegretol).
- Neonatal lupus can affect some newborn babies
of women with SLE or certain other immune system disorders. Babies
with neonatal lupus may have a serious heart defect. Other affected
babies may have a skin rash, liver abnormalities, or low blood
counts. Physicians can now identify most at-risk SLE patients,
allowing for prompt treatment of the infant at birth. Neonatal lupus
is very rare, and most infants of mothers with SLE are entirely
healthy.
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