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Lupus disease is classified as an autoimmune disease. It can affect different parts of human body. Commonly lupus affects the joints, lungs, kidney, skin, heart, blood, and brain. In normal healthy body, the immune system generates proteins called antibodies.
In lupus, the immune system then begins to make antibodies and directs them against itself; these antibodies are called auto-antibodies. The auto-antibodies affect the body by causing pain, inflammation, and damage in different parts of human body. There are considered to be four main types of lupus: systemic, discoid, neonatal and drug-induced lupus.
Discoid lupus always affects the skin. Discoid lupus can be diagnosed by taking a biopsy of the rash and performing tests. Discoid lupus usually will not involve problem with the body’s internal organs. Systemic lupus is found to be more severe than discoid lupus, because it affects almost any organ or organ system of the body. The problem with diagnosing systemic lupus is that, usually no two persons affected with systemic lupus will display identical symptoms.
In roughly 10% of people diagnosed with this disease, discoid lupus can evolve into a more severe problem, and can affect almost any organ or system of the body. It is likely that individuals who experience this problem, probably had systemic lupus all along, and the discoid rash was the main symptom.
Drug-induced lupus can occur after the use of certain prescribed medications. One of the tricky things about this form of lupus is that the symptoms are similar to those of systemic lupus. The two medications that are most connected with drug-induced lupus are hydralazine and procainamide. Roughly about 4 percent of the people who take these medications will develop this type of lupus.
Neonatal lupus is a rare and serious condition that is acquired from the passage of maternal auto-antibodies. This particular type of lupus can affect the skin, heart and blood of the fetus and newborn child. The symptoms are associated with a rash that will appear during the first few weeks of life. This rash may continue for roughly six months before fading completely. Neonatal lupus is not classified as systemic lupus.
