Diagnosis and Treatment

With all of this genetic information in mind, lupus is still a multifaceted disease; which essentially means it can cause multiple symptoms and variations in each person. This also creates a problem with testing because lupus is such a diverse disease with multiple symptoms. In order to get a proper diagnosis of lupus, a patient needs to be seen by a rheumatologist and undergo a series of clinical and hematological/urological testing in order to specifically categorize and identify the disease. Firstly, a physician will look at symptoms currently present in a patient. In this initial evaluation, a patient must have 3 of the 5 classified physical symptoms in order to get a diagnosis; these symptoms include having a malar rash, discoid rash present on the body, photosensitivity, oral ulcers and/or non-erosive arthritis. Next the physician will evaluate internal symptoms and look at lab workups to make a decision. A patient must have 1 of 6 of these symptoms are required to have a positive ANA test. These symptoms include any form of renal (protein found in urine), neurological (seizures or any mental illness caused by chemical imbalances like bipolar disorder or schizophrenia), hematological (anemia) or immunological (high levels of IgG and IgM antibodies present) disorders. In total a patient must have 4 of 11 symptoms and must have a positive ANA test in order to receive a full evaluative diagnosis of lupus. While there is a genetic component to lupus, there is not a true genetic evaluative test to diagnose lupus. However, physicians look at family history of lupus and similar autoimmune disorders such as Rheumatoid Arthritis.