If you have ever watched the television series House, you might remember how patients with strange sets of symptoms were first checked for lupus. How does lupus get diagnosed, and most importantly how is it managed?
Dr. Halina
What is lupus?
Lupus is a chronic systemic autoimmune disease in which the immune system attacks healthy tissues of the body for an extended period of time. It attacks not just one organ, but many. Since the skin manifestations of the disease resemble wolf bite marks, it was called Lupus erythematosus in Latin. Most often it is systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE) that is commonly referred to, although there is also neonatal, cutaneous, and drug-induced lupus erythematosus.
Lupus affects about 5 million people in the world.
What's the cause?
Lupus affects people between the ages of 15-45, predominantly women. There's no known cause. There is no lupus gene, but there are about 30 sites of genes of the immune system called "failures" ...
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