Hair Loss: Main Feature of Active Lupus

Fatigue is one of the most common and certainly one of the most prominent features of lupus. Patients often describe it as an unnatural fatigue. Its causes are not well understood.
Hair loss is one of the most important features of active lupus. It may be the first manifestation of the disease and is often first noticed by the patient as hair on the pillow. In some cases hair loss is patchy and there are cases when hair loss is even extreme. Fortunately, in the vast majority of patients the hair re-grows after successful treatment, though hair regeneration is often notoriously slow.
A wide variety of skin rashes occur in lupus. Usually these are sun-sensitive but it is not always the case. The most common rashes products for hair lossare on the cheeks (the butterfly rash across the nose and cheeks), on the elbows, on the palms and soles and on the V-neck area. The rashes vary from pinkish discoloration of blisters to small pinpoint blood spots called purpura. Most rashes in lupus have a tendency to come and go.
Majority of lupus patients suffer from joint and muscle pains which presents as pain all over. In acute flares of lupus the symptoms are often described as being flu-like. Unlike other rheumatic diseases such as rheumatoid arthritis, it is not just the joints that are affected but the tendons and muscles too.
Fever is usually a feature of a flare of the disease although it is unusual when the disease is in the quiet phase.
Depression is a major feature of lupus. It is sometimes simply attributed to being unwell or being tired. However, in many patients it is the primary feature of the disease. It sometimes responds well to management of the lupus itself and is clearly a central feature of the lupus process. In some patients the return of depression is a tell-tale sign that the lupus is flaring.
Headache is a major feature of lupus. In some patients, a history of headaches or a typical migraine go back to the patient’s teens and pre-date the diagnosis by many, many years. There is almost certainly a variety of causes of headaches in systemic lupus. One specific and important cause is sticky blood caused by the presence of antiphospholipid antibodies.
As almost every organ in the body may be affected at some point, the symptoms and signs are numerous and can include chest pain, weight loss, irritation of the eyes, mouth ulcers, and ankle swelling.
Because many symptoms of systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE) mimic those of other illnesses, lupus can be a difficult disease to diagnose. Diagnosis is usually made by a careful review of three factors: the individual’s entire medical history, an analysis of the results obtained in routine laboratory tests, and some specialized tests related to immune status.
To make a diagnosis of SLE, an individual must show clinical evidence of a multi-system disease or has shown abnormalities in several different organ systems.