List of Autoimmune Diseases

Info:

List of Autoimmune Diseases

 

Autoimmune diseases arise from an overactive immune response of the body against substances and tissues normally present in the body. In other words, the body actually attacks its own cells. The immune system mistakes some part of the body as a pathogen and attacks it. This may be restricted to certain organs (e.g. in chagas disease) or involve a particular tissue in different places (e.g. Goodpasture's disease which may affect the basement membrane in both the lung and the kidney). The treatment of autoimmune diseases is typically with immunosuppression—medication which decreases the immune response.

 

There is an on-going discussion about when a disease should be considered autoimmune, leading to different criteria such as Witebsky's postulates.

 

Read More

 

If there are any errors in the above information, please notify us via an email to info@sadoctors.co.za

www.sadoctors.co.za - South Africa's premier interactive site for all medical doctors, specialists, dentists, psychologists, hospitals, clinics and allied medical services in Cape Town, Western Cape, Johannesburg and Pretoria, Gauteng, Durban, KZN and the rest of South Africa.