Lupus

By Hayley Mitchell Haugen

Lupus is a chronic inflammatory disease where your immune system attacks your own tissues and organs. Your readers are provided with essential information on Lupus. This book also serves as a historical survey, by providing information on the controversies surrounding its causes. Compelling first-person narratives by people coping with Lupus give readers a first-hand experience. Readers will learn from the words of patients, family members, or caregivers. The symptoms, causes, and treatments explained in detail. Alternative treatments are also covered. Each essay is carefully edited and presented with an introduction, so that they are accessible for student researchers and readers. Includes charts, graphs, and tables.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Rosen Publishing
• Release date: Apr 12, 2010
• ISBN: 9780737751284

Book preview

effects.

Photo on previous page. The two most common symptoms of systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE) are skin rashes and arthropathy, or joint disease.

Both result from the abnormal immune system found in lupus patients. (John M. Daugherty/Photo Researchers, Inc.)

An Overview of Systemic Lupus Erythematosus

Rosalyn Carson-DeWitt

Photo on previous page. The two most common symptoms of systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE) are skin rashes and arthropathy, or joint disease.

Both result from the abnormal immune system found in lupus patients. (John M. Daugherty/Photo Researchers, Inc.)

Rosalyn Carson-DeWitt writes and edits medical articles for print, Internet, and CD-ROM products. In the following article Carson-DeWitt provides an overview of systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE), a disease that causes the immune system to attack otherwise healthy organs and tissues. The causes of SLE remain mostly unknown, but its effects are well documented. Arthritis, skin rashes, and inflammation of the lungs are just a few of the medical problems that lupus can cause. Although lupus can be difficult to diagnose, various treatments for the disorder are available. The ultimate prognosis for lupus patients depends on the severity of their lupus activity, but early treatment can help most patients to live productive lives.

Systemic lupus erythematosus (also called lupus or SLE) is a disease where a person’s immune system attacks and injures the body’s own organs and tissues. Almost every system of the body can be affected by SLE.

SOURCE: Rosalyn Carson-DeWitt,Gale Encyclopedia of Medicine, Detroit: 2006. Copyright © 2006 Gale, a part of Cengage Learning Inc. Reproduced by permission of Gale, a part of Cengage Learning.

SLE and the Immune System

The body’s immune system is a network of cells and tissues responsible for clearing the body of invading foreign organisms, like bacteria, viruses, and fungi. Antibodies are special immune cells that recognize these foreign invaders, and begin a chain of events to destroy them. In an autoimmune disorder like SLE, a person’s antibodies begin to recognize the body’s own tissues as foreign. Cells and chemicals of the immune system damage the tissues of the body. The reaction that occurs in tissue is called inflammation. Inflammation includes swelling, redness, increased blood flow, and tissue