Lupus disease is relatively rare. But through affected celebrities such as Seal or Lady Gaga, the disease is now comparatively many people a term. However, very few know what exactly is behind it. Worldwide, more than 5 million people are affected by lupus, and estimates for Germany are around 40,000. This makes lupus, or more precisely lupus erythematosus, one of the rather rare diseases.
What is lupus disease?
Lupus erythematosus is an autoimmune disease in which the immune system overreacts and acts against the body’s own tissue. This causes recurrent inflammatory reactions in the affected areas.
Since lupus erythematosus attacks the connective tissue, it is classified, like scleroderma, as a collagenosis, which in turn is an inflammatory rheumatic disease. Lupus particularly affects women of childbearing age.
Term lupus
Lupus erythematosus owes its name to the symptoms on the skin that can be caused by the disease: The skin is reddened (erythematosus = Greek for blushing) and the changes are reminiscent of wolf bites (lupus = Latin for wolf) when severe. Since this often spreads in a butterfly shape on the skin of the face, lupus is also called butterfly lichen.
The short form lupus is used synonymously with lupus erythematosus. However, it should be noted that there are two other lupus diseases. These have nothing to do with lupus erythematosus, but can cause similar appearances of the skin: Lupus pernio occurs in the setting of sarcoidosis, and lupus vulgaris (also called lupus exedens) is another name for the manifestations of cutaneous tuberculosis.
Lupus erythematosus: Forms
The term lupus erythematosus, or lupus for short, is used to describe several groups of diseases that have different symptoms, courses, and prognoses. Therapy also differs.
- Systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE): SLE is the rarer but also more severe form. In SLE, inflammation can occur not only in the skin but in almost all parts and organs of the body (systemic). Another name for SLE is lupus erythematosus disseminatus (LED).
- Cutaneous lupus (chronic discoid lupus erythematosus, CDLE): in CDLE with a mild course, only the skin is affected. CDLE is about ten times more common than SLE and very rarely progresses to SLE.
- Special forms:
- Subacute lupus erythematosus cutaneus (SCLE) represents an intermediate form: SCLE occurs primarily on the skin. However, SCLE can also affect joints, muscles and internal organs.
- In the rare neonatal lupus erythematosus syndrome, a newborn of a mother with lupus suffers from symptoms caused by maternal antibodies transmitted through the womb.
