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Autoimmune Diseases:
Systemic Lupus Erythematosus (SLE) | | This page was written by Shelley Ensz, and has not yet been medically edited. See Disclaimer. | |
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| Diagnosis of Lupus |
| Lupus Diagnosis Can Be Difficult. Lupus Foundation of America. |
| Diagnosis of Lupus. To assist the physician in the diagnosis of lupus, the American College of Rheumatology (ACR) in 1982 issued a list of 11 symptoms or signs that help distinguish lupus from other diseases (see Table 2). This has recently been revised. A person should have four or more of these symptoms to suspect lupus. Lupus Foundation of America. |
| The Cutoff Points of Antinuclear Antibody (ANA) with High Negative and Positive Predictive Values. Analysis of 5655 Cases. The cutoff point of ANA titer 160 is appropriate to exclude SLE (Lupus), MCTD (Mixed Connective Tissue Disease), SSc (Systemic Scleroderma) in most of the clinical setting. ANA 640 or higher deserves further investigation such as disease specific autoantibodies even without characteristic clinical findings, especially after proper exams for chronic liver and thyroid diseases and RA (Rheumatoid Arthritis). Hisanori Shimizu. 1515/129. ACR 2007. (Also see: Antibodies, SSc, MCTD, and RA) |
| Fifty years of anti-ds DNA antibodies: are we approaching journey's end? This review concludes that whilst some way short of ideal, the identification and measuremenet of antibodies to double-stranded DNA remains a useful criterion for the diagnosis of systemic lupus erythematosus and some of these antibodies do appear to be genuinely pathogenic. Rheumatology. Volume 46, Number 7 Pp. 1052-1056. |
| Quantitation of autoantibodies in systemic autoimmune diseases: clinically useful? Treatment based on changes in levels of the respective autoantibodies only seems at present not justified, in view of the toxicity of currently available immunosuppressive regimens. (Sage Journals OnLine) Lupus, Vol. 15, No. 7, 397-402 (2006) (Also see: Antibodies) |
| Diagnostic accuracy for lupus and other systemic autoimmune diseases in the community setting. Many patients with a positive antinuclear antibody test are incorrectly given a diagnosis of SLE and sometimes treated with toxic medications. The data support the importance of continuing medical education for community physicians in screening for autoimmune diseases and identifying patients who may benefit from early referral to a specialist. PubMed. Arch Intern Med. 2004 Dec 13-27;164(22):2435-41. |
| Identification of masqueraders of autoimmune disease in the office. There are several rheumatologic and autoimmune disorders that can masquerade as allergic disease. These conditions include rheumatoid and juvenile arthritis, Sjogren's syndrome, systemic lupus erythematosus, Behcet's and antiphospholipid syndromes, systemic sclerosis, vasculitis, sarcoidosis, chronic fatigue syndrome, and fibromyalgia. PubMed. Allergy Asthma Proc. 2003 Nov-Dec;24(6):421-9. (Also see: Rheumatoid Arthritis, Sjogren's Syndrome, Behcet's, Antiphospholipid, Systemic Sclerosis (Scleroderma), Vasculitis, Sarcoiditis, Fibromyalgia and CFS) |
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