Immune disorders cause low activity or over activity of the immune system. In an autoimmune disease, the body attacks and damages its own tissues. When a person has an immune deficiency it lowers the body’s capability to fight against infections. Instead of the immune system creating antibodies that fight against infections, they attack the body’s own healthy tissues.
Systemic Lupus Erythematosus (SLE)
Pathophysiology
SLE is a chronic inflammatory disease that can affect people of all ages and all different ethnic groups. About 90% of affected cases are women. Heredity plays a huge role in SLE development. There are deformities in the T-cell function, B-cell function, apoptosis, and tissue clearance. There is no determined …show more content…
There are signs and symptoms in all different areas of the body. In the brain there are headaches, memory loss and confusion. There are sores on the mouth or nose. A person’s eye can be dry or puffy and they can also have an increased sensitivity to light. A butterfly rash on the cheeks is one of the most common sign related to SLE. There’s shortness of breath, nausea, vomiting, fatigue, and unexplained fevers, which can easily be confused with many other …show more content…
There are usually always tender, warm, swollen joints. The joint stiffness is mostly worse in the mornings and after a person is inactive for a period of time. The smaller joints, such as the joints that attach the fingers to the hands or the toes to the feet, get affected first. It is possible with rheumatoid arthritis to experience symptoms that have nothing to do with the joints, like the skin, eyes, lungs, heart, and kidneys.
Diagnosis
Rheumatoid arthritis is usually suspected by the signs and symptoms. If a person has the signs and symptoms that indicate RA, then they will most likely be sent to a rheumatologist. There is not a test that can confirm RA. The rheumatologist will ask about the persons medical history and after that they will move to a physical exam and examine each joint individually looking for tenderness, swelling, warmth and limited or painful movement. Blood tests can be done to measure inflammation levels and look for biomarkers linked with RA. Sometimes an X-ray, ultrasound or MRI will be done to look for joint damage or