Refresher course: Lupus definition

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Lupus Definition:A chronic inflammatory autoimmune disorder that may affect many organsystems including the skin, joints, and internal organs. In lupus, thebody develops antibodies that react against a person's normal tissue,which can lead to inflammation, arthritis pain, tissue injury and majororgan damage. When the human body develops an infection, or is subjected to surgery ortrauma, it develops antibodies to fight off the infection or trauma.Once the infection or illness is under control, the antibodies die offand the white cell count returns to normal. In Lupus patients, the antibodies love fighting so much, they mutate andbegin to fight not only " bad germs " but normal body cells as well. Thebody in fact begins to destroy itself. Common signs and symptoms of disease that lupus sufferers experience canlead to a poor quality of life. Lupus can be mild but also can causesignificant and potentially serious damage to organs such as the lungs,heart, kidney, and brain. The disease is characterized by flares ofdisease activity interspersed with periods of improvement or remission.