What does systemic disease usually refer to

Systemic diseases are diseases that affect multiple organs and departments of the same tissue. Common systemic diseases include AIDS, psoriasis, polychondritis, rheumatoid arthritis, etc. There is another systemic disease that is also relatively common and relatively difficult to treat, and that is systemic lupus erythematosus. Below is a detailed introduction to the causes and corresponding symptoms of this systemic disease.

Causes

The cause of this disease has not been confirmed yet. A large number of studies have shown that genetics, endocrine, infection, immune abnormalities and some environmental factors are related to the onset of this disease.

The interaction of various factors such as genetic factors, environmental factors, and estrogen levels leads to a decrease in T lymphocytes, reduced function of T suppressor cells, and excessive proliferation of B cells, which produce a large number of autoantibodies, which combine with corresponding autoantigens in the body to form corresponding immune complexes, which are deposited in the skin, joints, small blood vessels, glomeruli and other parts. With the participation of complement, it causes acute and chronic inflammation and tissue necrosis (such as lupus nephritis), or antibodies directly react with tissue cell antigens, causing cell destruction (such as specific antigens on the walls of red blood cells, lymphocytes and platelets combined with corresponding autoantibodies, causing hemolytic anemia, lymphocytopenia and thrombocytopenia, respectively), thereby leading to multi-system damage to the body.

Clinical manifestations

1. General symptoms

The ratio of male to female affected by this disease is 1:7 to 9. The age of onset is mostly between 20 and 40 years old, but young children or the elderly may also develop the disease. Fatigue, fever, and weight loss.

2. Skin and mucous membranes

The manifestations are varied and can be roughly divided into two categories: specific and nonspecific. ① Specific skin lesions include butterfly rash, subacute cutaneous lupus erythematosus, and discoid erythema. ② Nonspecific skin lesions

There are photosensitivity, hair loss, oral ulcers, skin vasculitis (purpura), pigmentation changes (deposition or loss), livedo reticularis, Raynaud's phenomenon, urticaria-like rash, and rarely, there are lupus panniculitis or deep lupus and bullous lupus erythematosus.

3. Skeletal muscles

Symptoms include joint pain, arthritis, joint deformity (10% X-ray destruction) and myalgia, muscle weakness, avascular bone necrosis, and osteoporosis.

4. Heart involvement

There may be pericarditis (4% of patients have signs of pericardial tamponade), myocarditis mainly manifested as congestive heart failure, and valvular heart disease, such as Libman-Sacks endocarditis. Coronary arteritis is rare and presents mainly with chest pain, abnormal electrocardiogram, and elevated cardiac enzymes.

5. Respiratory system involvement

Pleurisy, pleural effusion (20%-30%), shrinking lung syndrome mainly manifested as a feeling of shortness of breath and diaphragm dysfunction); interstitial lung lesions are seen in 10%-20% of patients, of which 1%-10% manifest as acute lupus pneumonia, 0%-9% manifest as chronic interstitial lung infiltrative lesions, pulmonary embolism (5%-10%, usually antiphospholipid antibody positive), pulmonary hemorrhage and pulmonary hypertension (1%) can all occur.

6. Kidney

Clinical manifestations are nephritis or nephrotic syndrome. In nephritis, red blood cells, white blood cells, casts and proteinuria appear in the urine. Renal function tests are normal in the early stages, gradually progress, and uremia may occur in the later stages. Nephrotic syndrome and laboratory manifestations include generalized edema with varying degrees of abdominal, pleural, and pericardial effusions, massive proteinuria, decreased serum albumin, inverted albumin-globulin ratio, and hyperlipidemia.

7. Nervous system involvement

There may be convulsions, mental disorders, organic brain syndrome including organic amnesia/cognitive dysfunction, dementia and changes in consciousness; others may include aseptic meningitis, cerebrovascular accident, transverse myelitis and lupus sclerosis, and peripheral neuropathy.

8. Blood system

Affected individuals may present with anemia, decreased white blood cell count, thrombocytopenia, lymphadenopathy, and splenomegaly.

9. Digestive system

Affected patients may have anorexia, nausea, vomiting, diarrhea, ascites, hepatomegaly, abnormal liver function and pancreatitis. Less common are mesenteric vasculitis, Budd-Chiari syndrome, and protein-losing enteropathy.

10. Others

It may be combined with diseases such as hyperthyroidism or hypothyroidism, Sjögren's syndrome, etc.

When it comes to the treatment of systemic lupus erythematosus, conventional treatment is generally used, and of course there is also drug treatment, such as antimalarial drugs, non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs, etc. For patients with this disease, they must keep a happy mood, avoid being affected by the sun, try to avoid direct exposure to ultraviolet rays, and prevent infections in various organs of the body.