The article that follows will explain the connection between lupus and eye problems. If you want to learn more about it, you should read the text that follows. It will not only explain the relation between these two, but you can also read a bit more about lupus itself and find out the possible treatment.
What is lupus Before explaining the connection between lupus and eye problems, this article will explain lupus as an autoimmune disease. The lupus is a rare condition when the body does not identify its organs. Namely, the body produces antibodies to destroy its organs. This can be manifested with inflammation of the skin, joints, and organs. This disease is tough to diagnose at first because its symptoms are fatigue and pain, which are common symptoms of many other diseases as well. There are many manifestations of lupus as a disease. It is connected with headaches, anemia, fever, muscle and joint pain and other symptoms. Only a fifth of all people who have lupus experience eye problems. Lupus and eye problems are not that connected, as even if there are some eye problems, they are not that serious. They are mainly connected to the tear production and the persistent dryness of the eye. This is dangerous, but only to the outer layer of the eye, and it has a small chance to intervene with the patient’s vision. In the most cases, the patients are given some eye drops and artificial tears to be able to keep the eyes moisturized at all occasions and in this way to prevent any mechanical damage to the outer layer of the eye caused by different substances that can stick to it. However, there might be some more serious lupus and eye problems as well. This is primarily the risk of infections of the eyes. As a treatment for lupus, the body is given immunosuppressant to make it produce fewer antibodies and to destroy itself further. This makes the entire organism more susceptible to bacteria and viruses which can now do more damage to any body part than that could do in normal situations. In such cases, the bacteria can attack the outer layer of the eye, but also the eye nerve and cause severe consequences. Another severe eye problem in patients with lupus is the vasculitis. This is an inflammation of the blood vessels of the retina. This can be dangerous as the retina would try to repair itself and in the spots where it has been inflamed, there might be some empty blood vessels, which might cause problems in the vision. In this sense, there is also some other inflammation-induced diseases that can affect the lupus patients, such as conjunctivitis, scleritis and the like, which might have some more severe impact on the eyesight of the patients and they could even lose their sight. |
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