The Early and Late Manifestations of Lupus

There is now way to draw the correct picture of lupus, due to huge variance in manifestations among individuals, nationalities, ethnic groups, age groups. But still by analyzing a large amount of data we can at least create an approximate picture of the disease. Here we present the data from one such large scale European study in which 1000 patients (adults) suffering from lupus were analyzed for 10 years, below is the summary of the picture that emerged, the most common (top 10) manifestations of lupus in percentage(6).

1. Arthritis (joint pains) - 48%
2. Malar rash (butterfly rash of face) - 31%
3. Disease of Kidney - 28%
4. Photosensitivity - 23%
5. Neurological problems - 19%
6. Fever - 17%
7. Raynaud phenomena (changes in skin color as a reaction to temperature) - 16%
8. Oral ulcers - 12%
9. Thrombosis - 9%
10. Discoid lesions - 8%

There could be other types of skin rashes, the involvement of other organs like lungs and hearts. People suffering from the lupus are also more prone to other diseases, they get infections of urinary tract, skin, respiratory system, alimentary canal far more often than healthy people. They are also at much higher risk of developing hypertension, osteoporosis, anemia, gastric bleeding, diabetes, retinopathy, and cancer.