Types of Lupus:

SLE is a chronic autoimmune disease that is potentially debilitating and sometimes fatal as the immune system attacks the body’s cell and tissue’s resulting in inflammation and tissue damage.  It can affect any part of the body, but mostly harms the heart, joints, skin, lungs, blood vessels, liver, kidneys and the nervous system.  SLE is unpredictable with areas of flares alternating with remission.  Lupus can occur at any age, and is most common in women.  The symptoms of lupus are treated since there is no known cure for it, SLE is treated mainly with corticosteriods and immunosupressants.

Classification  

Lupus is a chronic autoimmune disease in which the body's own defense system attacks otherwise healthy tissue. Clinically, it can affect multiple organ systems including the heart, skin, joints, kidneys and nervous system. There are several types of lupus; generally when the word 'lupus' alone is used, it refers to the systemic lupus erythematosus or SLE as discussed in this article. Other types include:  

Lupus being a chronic autoimmune disease where the body attacks it’s own defense system on otherwise healthy tissue.  It can clinically attack multiple organs of the heart, skin, joints, kidneys and nervous system. Lupus have several types which are Drug induced lupus, Lupus nephritis, discoid lupus, subcutaneous lupus, and neonatal lupus being a rare disease affecting babies born to women with SLE, sjogren’s syndrome or sometimes no autoimmune disorder.

   Epidemiology    

Lupus is a rare disease and has been seen to increase the awareness and education since the early 1960’s. This can give patients accurate diagnosis helping them estimate the people with lupus.  270,000 and 1.5 million people in the U.S have lupus making it more common then cystic fibrosis or cerebral palsy.  It affects both females and males though it affects young women that are diagnosed nine times more often then men. 

 SLE can occur in anyone at any age, most commonly in women of childbearing age affecting 1 in 4000 in the U.S. Women becoming afflicted far more often than men the disease appears to be more prevalent in women of African, Asian, Hispanic and Native American origin being due to socioeconomic factors.  People with relatives with SLE are at slightly higher risk than the general population.

Many people have theorized about Porphyrias and people that have lupus share very similar symptoms including light sensitive, rashes, hair growth, stained teeth.

features of the disease, as well as advances in treatment.  

Lupus is divided into three historical periods that are classical, neoclassical, and modern.  Classical being when the disease was first recognized, the neoclassical period was recognized in 1872 with the systemic manifestations of the disease and the modern period which began 1948 with the discovery of the LE cell is characterized by the advances in our knowledge of the pathophysiology and clinical laboratory features of the disease and the advance treatment.

Medications are useful for the disease were found in 1894 when quinine was reported to be effective therapy.  Later salicylates in conjunction with quinine was noted to have a greater benefit.

Origins of 'Lupus Erythematosus'  

Lupus is latin for wolf all explanations originate with the reddish, butterfly-shaped malar rash that the disease classically exhibits across the nose and cheeks.

   1. In various accounts, some doctors thought the rash resembled the pattern of fur on a wolf's face.

   2. In other accounts doctors thought that the rash, which was often more severe in earlier centuries, created lesions that resembled wolf bites or scratches.

   3. Stranger still is the account that the term "Lupus" didn't come from Latin at all, but from the term for a French style of mask which women reportedly wore to conceal the rash on their faces.