Lupus
Lupus refers to a group of four types of inflammatory
autoimmune diseases in which body's immune system attacks its
own healthy tissues causing inflammation resulting in malfunction of various
organ systems. Lupus affects women more commonly than men, with women accounting
for nearly 90%
of affected population. The frequency of lupus varies by race and
ethnicity.
Types of lupus:
1. Systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE)
involves one or more internal organs.
2. Discoid lupus, only affects
the skin without internal disease.
3. Drug-induced lupus,
reaction to certain kinds of medicines.
4. Neonatal lupus.
It can affect any organ, but most
often involved organ systems include the kidneys, blood vessels, heart,
lungs, joints or skin. Many different symptoms are
associated with lupus and can be very mild to life threatening like skin
rash, joint pain to organ failure.
There is no one specific cause of lupus. However,
environmental and genetic triggers have been proposed. There are about 400
medications that can as well cause this condition.
Treatments include antimalarial drugs, non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs
such as ibuprofen, steroids, and/or immunosuppressive drugs.
Lupus
erythematosus means ‘wolf red’ and it was so called in the past as the facial rash of
some people with lupus looked like the bite of wolf.
