What Your Lupus Type Is?

Are you with lupus? Want to know what is your lupus type?

Lupus, an auto immune disease causes various tissues in the body to become inflamed.

Autoimmune disease means that a person’s immune system, which produces antibodies to fight against illness causing viruses or bacteria, mistakenly attacks the healthy body tissues.

Lupus can be mild or life-threatening depending on which tissues are affected. It can affect people of all ages and the definite cause of lupus is unknown.

Which body parts are more susceptible to affect with lupus?

Lupus can affect any part of your body. For instance,

• Lupus on skin causes inflammation, rash, body and mouth ulcers


• Lupus on the scalp can lead to hair loss


• Lupus affecting your joints can cause swelling and pain


• Inflammation of any organ like kidney can affect the functioning of kidney


• Swelling of the lining of your heart or lung can cause chest pain
  

There are four types of lupus, such as:

• Systemic lupus erythematosus


• Drug induced lupus


• Discoid lupus


• Neonatal lupus
  

Systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE): This is the most common and also serious type of lupus. This form of lupus can affect any organ or system of the body.

But in most of the patients only skin and joints are affected. This condition is called as minor organ threatening lupus. In some others, SLE can affect heart, lungs, kidneys, brain and blood vessels. Lupus affecting the brain is a major organ threatening lupus.

SLE can cause variety of unspecific symptoms that range from mild to severe. Lupus symptoms are different from one person to another, so diagnosing the condition is very difficult. In addition, SLE requires enduring combination treatment.

Drug induced lupus: This is a transient form that occurs due to a reaction to some medications. It disappears when you stop the causative drugs. Symptoms of this lupus are very similar to SLE, such as rash, arthritis, strange fever, coronary and pulmonary infection.

The most common drugs that cause drug induced lupus include: hydralazine (Apresoline), phenytoin (Dilantin), methyldopa (Aldomet), quinidine (Quinaglute), isoniazid (INH), carbamazepine (Tegretol) and procainamide (Procan).

Discoid lupus: Also called as chronic cutaneous lupus erythematosus, generally appears as a red scaly rash on sun-exposed areas like arms, face, legs, scalp, or trunk. Generally, discoid lupus is milder than systemic lupus. It can be diagnosed by its appearance and by skin biopsy.

In rare cases, people with discoid lupus can also develop SLE. But people with discoid lupus have their condition confined to the skin only.

Neonatal lupus: It is a rare condition that affects infants of women who have lupus and is caused by certain antibodies from the mother acting upon the infant in the womb.

During the birth time, your infant may have liver problem, skin rash or low blood cell counts. Usually these symptoms will go away within several months after the birth.

Some newborns with lupus can have serious heart defect. Undergoing proper testing can help to identify the condition before or after the birth.

Subacute cutaneous lupus is another milder form of lupus that causes skin rashes, sun sensitivity and joint aches.