Hello and welcome to the Zero to Finals podcast. My name is Tom and in this episode I'm going to be talking to you about systemic lupus erymatosis.

And if you want written notes on this topic, you can follow along at zero definals.com slash SLE or in the rheumumatology section of the zero definals medicine book.

So let's get straight into it.

Systemic lupus erythematosis, or just lupus for short, is an inflammatory,

autoimmune, connective tissue disease.

It's systemic because it affects multiple organs and systems and erythematosis

refers to the typical red malar rash that occurs across the face. It presents with varying and

very non-specific symptoms. It's more common in women and in Asians and it usually presents in young to middle age adults,

but can present later in life.

Often SLE takes a relapsing remitting course with flares where the condition gets worse and periods where the symptoms are improved.

The result of chronic inflammation

means that patients with lupus have a shortened life expectancy overall,

and cardiovascular disease and infection are leading causes of death

in people with lupus.

So let's talk about the path of physiology of SLA.

And SLA is characterized by antinuclear antibodies, and you need to remember

anti-nuclear antibodies and SLE go hand in hand. And these are antibodies to proteins within the

person's own cell nucleus. So as you can imagine, the cell nucleus is full of proteins and SLE occurs when antibodies are developed that attack those proteins within the cell nucleus of all the cells in the body.

This causes the immune system to target these proteins inside cells,

and when the immune system is activated by these antibodies targeting proteins in the cell nucleus,

it generates an inflammatory response. So inflammation in the body leads to the symptoms of the condition.

Usually inflammation is a helpful response when fighting off an infection. However, it creates

...