(BlackDoctor.org) -- Systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE, or lupus) is a chronic, inflammatory, multisystem disorder of the immune system. In SLE, the body develops antibodies that react against the person’s own normal tissue. These antibodies are markers for SLE, and are one indicator of many immune system abnormalities that lead to clinical manifestations.
Treatment of SLE
The treatment of SLE is as varied as its course. Although
(BlackDoctor.org) -- A new study shows the increased risk of lupus could be found in birth control pills with higher doses.
"Women who take oral contraceptives have a 50% higher risk of having lupus than women who don't take them," says study researcher Samy Suissa, PhD, a professor of epidemiology at McGill University in Montreal.
But to put that in perspective, he says the overall risk is still small.
In the study, Suissa and colleagues also found the risk higher in women
Minority Women Are Excessively Impacted With Lupus
(BlackDoctor.org) -- There is an urgent need for more education and research to address the fact that minority women are disproportionately impacted by the autoimmune disease lupus, according to an expert panel speaking at the roundtable forum, "Racial Disparities in Lupus: Strategies for Intervention in Minority Communities," sponsored by the S.L.E. Lupus Foundation and the New York City Health and Hospitals Corporation, as part of the 7th International Congress on S.L.E. and Related Conditions.
(BlackDoctor.org) -- On Thursday, May 2, 2002, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) released a report, "Trends in Deaths from Systemic Lupus Erythematosus-United States, 1979-1998," that revealed a 60-70 percent upsurge in lupus deaths over the past 20 years. Each year during the study period, death rates were more than five times higher for women than for men, and more than three times higher for African Americans than for Caucasians. The CDC states that the keys