Systemic Lupus Erythematosus (SLE) is a rare disease. About five and a half new cases of SLE were diagnosed each year per 100,000 people (Virtual Medical Centre [VmC], 2018). The average age of being diagnosed with SLE is about 39 years of age. (VMC, 2018). Systemic Lupus Erythematosus is an autoimmune disease where the immune system attacks health tissues and causes inflammation and tissue damage in the affected organ (7). In order to understand Systemic Lupus Erythematosus, one must consider its possible causes and risk factors, symptoms, and complications. Possible causes and risk factors of Systemic Lupus Erythematosus are genetics, environment, and sex, hormones, and ethnicity. Symptoms of Systemic Lupus Erythematosus are pain, rashes, and other symptoms. Complications of Systemic Lupus Erythematosus are the negative impact on pregnancy, musculoskeletal complications, and other complications.
Possible Causes and Risk Factors of Systemic Lupus Erythematosus
Possible causes and risk factors of Systemic Lupus Erythematosus (SLE) are genetics, environment, and sex, hormones, and ethnicity. The first cause or risk factor of Systemic Lupus Erythematosus is genetics. One is more likely to develop Systemic Lupus Erythematosus if other family members have a similar autoimmune disease (3). People with relatives that have a type of Lupus, like Discoid Cutaneous Lupus, Drug-induced Lupus, and Neonatal Lupus, have a five through thirteen percent chance of developing Systemic Lupus Erythematosus (The National Resource Center on Lupus, 2018; Lupus Link Minnesota, 2018). The mutation of single genes can cause Systemic Lupus Erythematosus because most of the genes involved in the immune system, the body’s defense against infectious organisms, are associated with SLE (2,14). The second possible cause of Systemic Lupus Erythematosus is the environment. Systemic Lupus Erythematosus could develop if the immune system attacks normal cells mistaking them as foreign cells. This could cause an environmental trigger, such as an infection in an invading organism (5). Another environmental trigger is vitamin D deficiency, or hypovitaminosis D, which is when one does not get enough sunlight. People with Systemic Lupus Erythematosus tend to stay out of the sun due to the fact that they are sensitive to sunlight (8). Certain medications like Isoniazid, which treats and prevents tuberculosis, Hydralazine, which treats high blood pressure, and Procainamide, which treats heart rhythm problems, are a possible cause for Systemic Lupus Erythematosus (5). The third cause or risk factor of Systemic Lupus Erythematosus is sex, hormones, and ethnicity. Women, especially around childbearing age, are more at risk than men to develop Systemic Lupus Erythematosus (4,5). Systemic Lupus Erythematosus is more common in non-Caucasians, especially at an early age, than in the Caucasians population, in the United States (4). Women around childbearing age, after puberty, when adolescents become more reproductive capable and reach sexual maturity, but before menopause, a decline in reproductive hormones when a woman reaches her 40’s and 50’s, the hormone production or the metabolism of hormones may contribute to the development of Systemic Lupus Erythematosus (5).
Symptoms of Systemic Lupus Erythematosus
Symptoms of Systemic Lupus Erythematosus are pain in the body, rashes, and other symptoms. The first symptoms of Systemic Lupus Erythematosus is pain in patient’s body. Systemic Lupus Erythematosus patients may experience painful swelling or swollen joints, and may develop arthritis, inflammation in joints which causes pain and stiffness (1). One with Systemic Lupus Erythematosus may experience chest pain with coughing, sneezing, laughing, or taking deep breaths (2). Systemic Lupus Erythematosus patients may also experience swelling in legs or around their eyes (2). The second symptom of Systemic Lupus Erythematosus is rashes. The Butterfly rash is a rash shaped like a butterfly. The rash is found around the cheeks and bridge of the nose. Systemic Lupus Erythematosus patients have a 40 percent of chance of developing the Butterfly Rash (Sundbom, 2018). A Malar rash is a rash across the cheekbone and over the bridge of the nose, similar to the Butterfly rash. It is usually red or purple and is either blotchy or completely red over the affected area. People with Systemic Lupus Erythematosus may experience the Malar rash (10). A person with Systemic Lupus Erythematosus may also develop rashes on their face and ears, upper arms, shoulders, chest, and hands (1). The third symptom of Systemic Lupus Erythematosus is other symptoms. One may experience pale or purple fingers and toes when cold or when stressed, also known as Raynaud’s phenomenon (2,15). Patients with Systemic Lupus Erythematosus may experience mouth ulcers or swollen glands (2). Patients with Systemic Lupus Erythematosus may also develop a fever with no cause (2).
Complications of Systemic Lupus Erythematosus
Complications of Systemic Lupus Erythematosus are the negative impact on pregnancy, musculoskeletal complications, and other complications. One complication of Systemic Lupus Erythematosus is its negative impact on pregnancy. Women with Systemic Lupus Erythematosus have high chances of a miscarriage, the natural death of the fetus before it can survive independently (1). Women with Systemic Lupus Erythematosus have a high risk of premature birth, birth that happens three or more weeks before the baby’s estimate due date(1). Women who have antiphospholipid antibodies, blood vessels that become narrow and are irregular, are at a higher risk of miscarriage in the second trimester. This is because of an increase in the risk of blood clotting in the placenta (1). Another complication of Systemic Lupus Erythematosus is musculoskeletal complications. About 90 percent of Systemic Lupus Erythematosus patients may experience polyarthralgias and polymyalgias, which is muscle pain (Marco & Chhakchhuak, 2018). Five to twelve percent of Systemic Lupus Erythematosus patients experience avascular necrosis, which is pain in the groin, buttocks, or knee (Marco & Chhakchhuak, 2018). Many Systemic Lupus Erythematosus patients experience pain in the femoral condyle, the lower part of the femur, or tibial plateau, the knee joint (11). The last complication of Systemic Lupus Erythematosus is other complications. One with Systemic Lupus Erythematosus may experience a heart attack, stroke, and/or seizure (3). Another complication Systemic Lupus Erythematosus patients may experience is memory and behavioral changes (3). One may also experience kidney inflammation, decreased kidney function, and/or kidney failure with Systemic Lupus Erythematosus (3).
It is easiest to make sense of Systemic Lupus Erythematosus, when one considers its possible causes and risk factors, symptoms, and complications. Systemic Lupus Erythematosus has many possible causes and risk factor like genetics, environment, and sex, hormones, and ethnicity. Systemic Lupus Erythematosus has multiple symptoms like pain in the body, rashes, and other symptoms. Systemic Lupus Erythematosus also has many complications like the negative impact on pregnancy, musculoskeletal complications, and other complications. With the technology today and the way it is still advancing there is still hope fore a cure or end to Systemic Lupus Erythematosus (1).