All you need to know about Lupus - an autoimmune disease

Lupus is known as Systemic Lupus Erythematosus, in short is an autoimmune disease. The immune system in the body is normally responsible for fighting foreign substances in the body like germs and viruses, however in autoimmune disease the immune system makes a mistake and attacks the healthy tissues of the body by causing different symptoms. Lupus can attack several parts of the body including skin, liver, joints, kidneys, brain, blood cells, or even the gastrointestinal tract.

Lupus is a complicated disease that can look different in any given person, that is why it is often called “disease of 1000 faces”. The disease can range from very mild to severe.

The common signs and symptoms of lupus are:

• Swelling, joint pain, and stiffness
• Fatigue, fever, weight loss, loss of appetite, weight loss
• Rashes, which involve the shawl area and backs of the finger pulps, upper arms, and the base of nails, as well as facial rash, often in response to sunlight;(butterfly shaped rash on face)
• Hair loss
• Sores in nose and mouth
• Painful fingers or toes in cold with colour changes
• Kidney disease
• Difficulty in breathing, chest pain
• Seizures
• Blood clots or history of miscarriages

Lupus is most likely to affect women as compared to men. The ratio of women to men is 9 to 1 or 90%. Lu pus can often trigger after childbirth, at menopause or puberty due to hormonal activity and change. Lupus is more common in younger people between 15 years to 44 years of age. Lupus can affect children too.

Kidney is most common internal organ affected in lupus. This condition is called lupus nephritis which is considered as the severe lupus. In certain severe cases of inflammation affecting the kidneys, blood pressure can rise, blood tests of kidney function become abnormal, and eventually the amount of urine produced may fall and kidneys may fail completely. Hence, it is very important to have regular monitoring of the disease with a Rheumatologist to pick up kidney disease in lupus early.

Types of lupus:

Systemic lupus erythematosus is the most common form of lupus.

Discoid lupus erythematosus causes a skin rash that does not go away.

Neonatal lupus affects newborns.

Drug-induced lupus can be caused by certain medicines.

In Lupus heredity does seem to play a role. Almost 10% of lupus have a first-degree relative or second-degree relative with lupus. Therefore, 90 percent of lupus patients do not have relatives with lupus. Even in identical twins, when one sibling has lupus, and the other twin may not have. Lupus is not contagious and does not get transmitted sexually.

This article is authored by Dr Dipti Patel, Consultant Rheumatologist, Wockhardt Hospital.