While there is no cure for lupus, people with the disease are living longer, healthier lives than in years past. Today, most people diagnosed with lupus in adulthood can expect to live a normal life span. Only 10 to 15 percent of people with lupus die prematurely due to complications of the disease.
For people with lupus, some treatments can increase the risk of developing potentially fatal infections. However, the majority of people with lupus can expect a normal or near-normal life expectancy. Research has shown that many people with a lupus diagnosis have been living with the disease for up to 40 years.
With close follow-up and treatment, 80-90% of people with lupus can expect to live a normal life span. It is true that medical science has not yet developed a method for curing lupus, and some people do die from the disease. However, for the majority of people living with the disease today, it will not be fatal.
Lupus can cause serious kidney damage, and kidney failure is one of the leading causes of death among people with lupus. Brain and central nervous system. If your brain is affected by lupus, you may experience headaches, dizziness, behavior changes, vision problems, and even strokes or seizures.
Typical causes of death from lupus are complications from: Kidney damage: The most common form of lupus, systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE), can cause serious damage to the kidneys that can shorten lifespan. Your doctor might call this lupus nephritis.
Class 5, or membranous lupus nephritis
This classification involves thickening and scarring of the important structures within the kidney. A person will have high levels of blood, protein, or both in their urine as well as high blood pressure. They may also require dialysis or a kidney transplant.
Lupus nephritis tends to develop within 5 years of the appearance of initial lupus symptoms. The condition affects about 40% of people who have SLE and can lead to end-stage kidney disease (ESKD) in 22% of patients over a period of 15 years.
Kidneys About one half of people with lupus experience kidney involvement, and the kidney has become the most extensively studied organ affected by lupus.
Palliative (pronounced PAH-lee-uh-tiv) care is a health care approach that tends to the physical, emotional, social and spiritual needs of a person with an illness and the needs of his or her family. It can be offered to people at any age and at any point in an illness such as lupus.
Systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE) is the most common and most serious type of lupus. SLE affects all parts of the body.
The vast majority of people diagnosed with the condition will have a normal or near-normal life expectancy. However, some people with SLE are still at risk of life-threatening complications as a result of damage to internal organs and tissues, such as heart attack or stroke.
Overall, SLE gradually gets worse over time, and damage to the major organs of the body can be life-threatening.
With age, symptom activity with lupus often declines, but symptoms you already have may grow more severe. The accumulation of damage over years may result in the need for joint replacements or other treatments.
Between 30% to 50% of those diagnosed with lupus will develop kidney disease, also known as lupus nephritis, within the first six months to three years of their condition.
Lupus is a chronic inflammatory autoimmune disease with a wide range of clinical presentations resulting from its effect on multiple organ systems. There are four main types of lupus: neonatal, discoid, drug-induced, and systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE), the type that affects the majority of patients.
It can affect your joints, tendons, kidneys, and skin. It can affect blood vessels. And it can affect organs such as the heart, lungs, and brain. It can cause rashes, fatigue, pain, and fever.
A lupus "flare" or "flare up" is when your lupus symptoms worsen and you feel ill as a result. The formal definition of a flare is: A measurable increase in disease activity in one or more organ systems involving new or worse clinical signs and symptoms and/or lab measurements.
Muscle and joint pain.
This affects most people with lupus. Common areas for muscle pain and swelling include the neck, thighs, shoulders, and upper arms.
A much more common cause of death in SLE is infection. Indeed in most published studies, this is the most prominent cause of death. As a rule, however, the clinical and laboratory manifestations of infections are obvious, and if there is a diagnostic problem at all, it is to distinguish infection from acute lupus.
Systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE) is an autoimmune disease with an increased risk of hospitalization. Multiple studies have reported SLE flare, infection, and cardiovascular (CV) events as the most common reasons for hospitalization.
Systemic lupus erythematosus (“lupus” or “SLE”) and other autoimmune diseases are linked to an increased risk of certain types of cancer. Specifically, lupus patients may experience an elevated risk of lymphoma and other cancers, such as cancer of the cervix.