SLE affects the hematologic system with a decrease in the levels of white cells, platelets, and red cells; life threatening thrombocytopenia and severe anemia although uncommon can be seen in patients with SLE. In the most severe forms of SLE, the kidney and the central nervous systems are affected (23).
It can affect your joints, tendons, kidneys, and skin. It can affect blood vessels. And it can affect organs such as the heart, lungs, and brain.
Lupus occurs when the immune system, which normally helps protect the body from infection and disease, attacks its own tissues. This attack causes inflammation, and in some cases permanent tissue damage, which can be widespread – affecting the skin, joints, heart, lung, kidneys, circulating blood cells, and brain.
Cardiac involvement in patients with SLE can involve all components of the heart, including the pericardium, conduction system, myocardium, valves, and coronary arteries [1, 2]. Coronary artery disease (CAD) in SLE was described much later than the other cardiovascular manifestations.
About 50% of people with SLE will experience lung involvement during the course of their disease. Five main lung problems occur in lupus: pleuritis, acute lupus pneumonitis, chronic (fibrotic) lupus pneumonitis, pulmonary hypertension, and “shrinking lung” syndrome.
SLE affects many organ systems, including the central and peripheral nervous systems and muscles.
Lupus can slow the digestive process, and this can cause a wide variety of GI issues. Digestive problems may be the direct result of an attack by the immune system or from medications to treat lupus. These digestive difficulties include nausea, vomiting, diarrhea, or constipation.
As many as half of adults with systemic lupus develop lupus nephritis. Systemic lupus causes immune system proteins to damage the kidneys, harming their ability to filter out waste.
Lupus nephritis is a type of kidney disease caused by systemic lupus erythematosus link (SLE or lupus). Lupus is an autoimmune disease link—a disorder in which the body's immune system attacks the body's own cells and organs. Kidney disease caused by lupus may get worse over time and lead to kidney failure.
Lupus can affect both the central nervous system (the brain and spinal cord) and the peripheral nervous system. Lupus may attack the nervous system via antibodies that bind to nerve cells or the blood vessels that feed them, or by interrupting the blood flow to nerves.
Lupus can increase a person's risk of developing an endocrine disease, but no one is sure why. Though it is relatively rare, inflammation caused by the autoantibodies associated with lupus can directly damage glands of the endocrine system. Some lupus symptoms can mimic and mask those of an endocrine condition.
Involvement of the musculoskeletal system is extremely common in patients with systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE). Arthralgia, arthritis, osteonecrosis (avascular necrosis of bone), and myopathy are the principal manifestations. Osteoporosis, often due to glucocorticoid therapy, may increase the risk of fractures.
Liver involvement in systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE) often manifests as abnormal liver enzymes [1,2]. The causes of liver function abnormalities in lupus are often secondary to drug toxicity, comorbidities like fatty liver, as well as chronic hepatitis B virus (HBV) and hepatitis C virus (HCV) infections [3-5].
Systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE) frequently manifests as urinary tract disease, most commonly in the form of lupus nephritis. Bladder involvement in the disease course takes a subclinical form and may affect both children and adults.
Lupus can inflame the kidneys, causing permanent damage. This can lead to swelling in the legs and high blood pressure. Your doctor will look for protein or blood cells in your urine, which are signs of kidney damage. Sometimes, lupus can lead to kidney failure and require dialysis.
Lupus and the pancreas
Lupus can cause pancreatitis, or inflammation of the pancreas. Symptoms include: Abdominal pain that can spread to your back. Nausea and vomiting.
Lupus symptoms include: Muscle and joint pain. You may experience pain and stiffness, with or without swelling. This affects most people with lupus.
People with lupus are more likely to experience infection and infection-related complications. This is because their immune system is weakened by both the disease and the medication used to treat it. The most common infections for people with lupus include those of the respiratory tract, skin and urinary system.
SLE also has a higher prevalenceopens in a new tab or window in African Americans, who tend to have worse outcomes. Muscle weakness, pain, and atrophy affecting both upper and lower limbs often causes patients to seek medical attention, the case authors noted, although weakness is not generally severe.
Lupus is a disease that occurs when your body's immune system attacks your own tissues and organs (autoimmune disease). Inflammation caused by lupus can affect many different body systems — including your joints, skin, kidneys, blood cells, brain, heart and lungs.
The most common way that lupus can affect your lungs is through inflammation of the pleura, the lining that covers the outside of the lungs. The symptom of pleuritis that you may experience is severe, often sharp, stabbing pain in a specific area or areas of your chest.
Systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE) is a multisystemic autoimmune disease that can affect almost every organ in the body. Its complications can often be fatal. The fatal complications include lupus cerebritis, lupus nephritis, and cardiac manifestations such as pericardial effusion.
Kidneys About one half of people with lupus experience kidney involvement, and the kidney has become the most extensively studied organ affected by lupus.
SLE can affect people of all ages, including children. However, women of childbearing ages—15 to 44 years—are at greatest risk of developing SLE. Women of all ages are affected far more than men (estimates range from 4 to 12 women for every 1 man).