Through a series of autoantibodies (including ANA, anti-phospholipids and anti-cardiolipin), in fact, lupus is capable of causing inflammation of the joints, skin, kidneys, lungs, nervous system, heart and further other organs.
Currently, the precise cause of lupus is unknown; based on some scientific evidence, however, the medical community believes that SLE is the result of a combination of genetic, hormonal and environmental factors.
Lupus can affect people of all ages, genders and populations; however, it is a fact that it is more frequent in the female population (the woman-man ratio is 9: 1), in the population aged between 15 and 45 years, and in specific populations, such as, for example, the Afro- American, Native-American or Latin-Hispanic.
Precisely to underline this characteristic of causing symptoms similar to those of other pathologies, systemic lupus erythematosus is also known, in slang terms, with the epithet of "great imitator".
The lack of specificity of the symptoms caused by lupus makes the differential diagnosis, that is the diagnosis by exclusion, fundamental.
