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Sunday, May 8, 2011

lupus


What Is Lupus?

Lupus (pronounced: loo-pus) is a disease that involves the immune system and affects about 1.5 million Americans; nearly 90% of those diagnosed with the disease are female. Normally, a person's immune system works by producing immunity cells andantibodies, special substances that fight germs and infections.

But when a person has lupus, the immune system goes into overdrive and can't tell the difference between some of the body's normal, healthy cells and germs that can cause infection. So the immune system responds by making autoantibodies that attack the body's normal cells.

The three types of lupus are:

1. Systemic Lupus Erythematosus (pronounced: er-uh-thee-muh-toe-sus)

Also called SLE, this is the type of lupus that most people mean when they talk about the disease. It was given its name by a 19th century French doctor who thought that the facial rash of some people with lupus looked like the bite or scratch of a wolf ("lupus" is Latin for wolf and "erythematosus" is Latin for red).

SLE is the most serious form of lupus. Like Chantelle, about 15% of the people who have SLE first start to feel sick when they are teens. SLE can affect the skin, joints, and tendons. It may also affect organs like the brain, heart, lungs, and kidneys.

2. Cutaneous (or skin) Lupus

This type of lupus is a skin disease that causes a rash on the face, neck, scalp, and ears. There are two types of cutaneous lupus: discoid lupus erythematosus (DLE), which can cause scarring; and subacute cutaneous lupus erythematosus (SCLE), which doesn't cause scars. Discoid lupus is a much more rare form of lupus than SLE, although about 10% of people with discoid lupus will develop a mild form of SLE. It doesn't affect other body organs the way that SLE can.

3. Drug-Induced Lupus

This type of lupus is caused by a reaction to certain kinds of medicines. For example, some types of antiseizure medicines and acne medicines can cause this kind of lupus in teens. Drug-induced lupus is similar to SLE in the ways it affects the body, but once a person stops taking the medicine, the symptoms usually go away.


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