Lupus

Lupus is a serious chronic or long-term condition in which your immune system attacks healthy cells and tissueby mistake. This can affect your joints, blood vessels, skin, kidneys, brain and other organs.
Lupus is more common in women than men. African Americans, Latinos, Asians and Native Americans are more at risk than other cultures. The cause of lupus is not known. There are many kinds of lupus, although systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE) is the most common kind of lupus. The different kinds of lupus are as follows:

  • Systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE).When people talk about lupus they usually mean SLE , which makes up about 70 percent of all cases of lupus. It can be mild or severe, and affect various parts of the body. It is more common in women than men. It can occur at any age, but usually appears more often in individuals between the ages of 10 and 50. Symptoms may vary from person to person, but common symptoms include fatigue, hair loss, unexplained fever, painful and swollen joints, sensitivity to the sun (photosensitivity), skin rashes, often on the face (called a "butterfly" rash), kidney problems, and other symptoms, depending on what part of the body is affected. The diagnosis of SLE is made by a combination of physical symptoms, your doctor performing a physical exam and the results of laboratory tests. SLE causes damage to many different parts of the body. There is no cure for SLE, but the goal of treatment is to control symptoms. Medicines and lifestyle changes can help control it.
  • Cutaneous lupus erythematosus.Cutaneous means "skin" meaning this kind of lupus mainly affects the skin, although it can be seen in people with SLE.Symptoms may include rashes, lesions, hair loss, vasculitis (swelling of the blood vessels) ulcers, and photosensitivity. A doctor will make a diagnosis by removing a small piece of the rash or sore and put it under a microscope to determine if someone has skin lupus and the kind of skin lupus. There are two major kinds of cutaneous lupus:

Discoid lupus erythematosus (DLE). The skin is mainly affected by
discoid lupus which causes a red raised rash that becomes scaly or changes
color to dark brown. These rashes may appear on the face, skin scalp, or on
other areas, including the mouth or nose.
Subacutecutaneous lupus erythematosus.This kind of lupus
that affects the skin makes up 10 percent of lupus cases.Subacute
cutaneous lupus causes skin lesions or sores that appear on parts of the
body after being out in the sun.

  • Drug-induced lupus. Certain medicines cause drug -induced lupus. The symptoms of drug-induced lupus are like those of systemic lupus (SLE), but rarely affect major organs. The symptoms may include muscle pain, joint pain and fever, and are usually mild for most people. This condition usually goes away when the medicine is no longer taken. Drugs most commonly associated with drug-induced lupus are used to treat other chronic conditions like hypertension, seizures or rheumatoid arthritis. Everyone who takes these drugs will not get drug-induced lupus.
  • Neonatal lupus. This rare form of lupus affects infants and is caused by certain antibodies from the mother. These antibodies are found in mothers who have lupus, but it is also possible for an infant to have neonatal lupus even when the mother is healthy. When this happens the mother will frequently develop symptoms of lupus later in life. The symptoms of an infant with neonatal lupus may include a skin rash, liver problems, or low blood cell counts, but these symptoms disappear after several months. A rare heart defect can also be seen in infants with neontal lupus. Physicians are now able to identify most at-risk mothers and treat the infant before or at birth. Consequently, most infants of mothers with lupus are healthy.

People who have lupus, whether mild or severe, should be monitored and receive treatment by a doctor for all symptoms, which may include symptoms that are life-threatening.
References
"Lupus."National Library of Medicine.National Institutes of Health. March 4, 2013.
"Lupus Fact Sheet."Office on Women's Health.U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. June 13, 2011.
"Systemic lupus erythematosus."National Library of Medicine.National Institutes of Health. February 2, 2012.