My niece has just been dx'd with Lupus. She has had swollen joints and recurring rashes. A skin biopsy apparently showed Lupus is the problem.
I know Lyme can also appear as Lupus and said I would find info on this so that she can consider what questions to pose for docs, etc in order to be sure that it is not an infectious cause (such as Lyme specifically).
I will post in Seeking a doc also, but if anyone reading this knows a LLMD (who takes insurance) in Westchester County, NY, please PM me because my niece doesn't want to travel further if possible.
THANKS.
Posted by shazdancer (Member # 1436) on :
From the abstract:
quote:Neither IgG nor IgM ELISA was sensitive in the serodiagnosis of erythema migrans. Serum samples from patients with syphilis and systemic lupus erythematosus showed mild cross-reactivity in IgG tests. -- Journal of Clinical Microbiology
Also check out www.roadback.org, a website dedicated to the treatment of autoimmune diseases with antibiotics.
Posted by disturbedme (Member # 12346) on :
I'm also curious about this.
My mother-in-law has lupus and said that it was apparently found in her blood that she has always had the gene for it. Don't know how in the world they find that??? She said people in her family have it as well, like some cousins of hers.
I've always wondered if it's lyme or really lupus that she has. She's in remission now. She got so bad nearly 10 years ago where she ended up in the hospital. They did a kidney biopsy and found lupus in it (don't know how the heck they found lupus cells or something in the kidney either!!??!) and did chemo which did help her and put her in remission since.
Never knew lupus patients could have chemo either... I would love to learn more about the connection and the differences between lupus and lyme, etc.
I didn't even think you could really test for lupus except for having an ANA -- which many people with lyme have that elevated and are misdiagnosed with lupus because of it... soooooo... very confusing! Posted by Corinne E (Member # 4670) on :
My twin sister in Ottawa, Canada, has lupus and scleroderma, she's waiting to (hopefully) get an appointment with LLMD there.
In the spring she was a large gathering (can't remember what this meeting is called hehe), about 100 people there where a neurologist was giving a talk about lupus and scleroderma. My sister explained about my having lyme, etc. She also said she had been bitten many many times by ticks. She asked was it possible that she had lyme instead of lupus.
He explained that lyme did not cause lupus, but most likely "triggered" lyme. Other people there asked him to speak about lyme; he talked for about 10 min on lyme, etc., but what I was very interested to hear was that he said the tests here in Canada were just not reliable, said they were just terrible.
Bliss
Posted by Geneal (Member # 10375) on :
In an organ biopsy, they look for damage due to inflammation or damage to the tissue.
This along with symptoms, ANA and other blood work is part of the diagnosis of Lupus.
However, even on the Lupus website, it states that 20% of people can have a positive ANA.
Those 20% may never go on to develop Lupus.
Another accurate testing measurement right?
Has your neice had an Igenex WB done?
I would insist on it prior to accepting a Lupus diagnosis.
That is a diagnosis that the ducks tried to pin on me despite a completely negative ANA panel.
I mean the whole ANA panel....DNA and all.
I fought that diagnosis with tooth and nail along with the fibromyalgia diagnosis.
There was no way they were putting that garbage in my medical chart to follow me the rest of my life.
Lyme is bad enough!
Hope things work out for your neice. This diagnosis must be very frightening for all.
Sending prayers and positive thoughts.
Hugs,
Geneal
Posted by ssmillik (Member # 9635) on :
I believe you can have Lyme and lupus at the same time.
I developed Addison's disease (autoimmune adrenal insufficiency) at around the same time that my chronic Lyme symptoms reemerged. No matter how much I got treated for Lyme, my Addison's was here to stay.
Have your niece treated for Lyme and, if her lupus symptoms continues, then she has lupus also. That's just my opinion.
Posted by bettyg (Member # 6147) on :
3 times i was diagnosed with LUPUS; NEVER TREATED!! ana showed that.
4 biopsies showed 2 with UNKNOWN BUG BITE! guess we know now what it was huh!
go to treeepatrol's post in MEDICAL on his newbie links. look for the name ART DOUGHTERY, and click on it; he did research galore on the other 300 illnesses mimicking lyme.
he broke it down per disease; example lupus and lyme. for for his medical abstracts....
click on my newbie package link below at end of my post; i have some info there on lupus; CHECK THE TABLE OF CONTENTS as it shows everything you will find in there now! good luck!
Posted by Parisa (Member # 10526) on :
Corrine,
If you haven't already, please check out the www.roadback.org site. There are people there who had very serious cases of scleroderma who have reversed it with low dose antibiotics.
Posted by dontlikeliver (Member # 4749) on :
Thank you all. I have very limited computer access at the moment. I will re-read these and act on them when I can get back to it in about a week. DLL
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