Systemic autoimmune diseases
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In systemic autoimmune diseases, the immune system attacks many different organs, tissues, and cells of the body. Examples include: systemic lupus erythematosis, rheumatoid arthritis, systemic sclerosis, and dermatomyositis.
In contrast to systemic autoimmune diseases, organ-specific or tissue-specific autoimmune diseases such as diabetes mellitus type 1, Hashimoto's thyroiditis, multiple sclerosis and myasthenia gravis affect only one organ or tissue type. For example, diabetes mellitus affects the islet cells in the pancreas, Hashimoto's thyroiditis affects the thyroid gland, multiple sclerosis affects the brain, and myasthemia gravis affects the muscles.
The systemic autoimmune diseases are rheumatological diseases. Rheumatologists specialize in their treatment.
Synonyms
The terms "collagen vascular disease" and "collagen-vascular disease," in use since 1962 or earlier, are synonyms for systemic autoimmune disease. The term "collagen vascular disease" is a misnomer: these diseases affect many structures in addition to vascular structures, and they affect many molecules in addition to the collagen molecule.
They are also referred to as connective tissue diseases. However, although the systemic autoimmune diseases affect connective tissue, they also affect many other tissue types, including muscle tissue and neural tissue. In addition, many connective tissue diseases (such as scurvy and Marfan syndrome) are not autoimmune in nature.
Systemic lupus erythematosis and rheumatoid arthritis can cause vasculitis (vasculitis means "inflammation of blood vessels"). However, these diseases affect many structures other than blood vessels.
References
- X-ray seminar Number 18. Generalized collagen vascular disease. (1962)
- Robbins and Cotran Pathologic Basis of Disease, 7th edition. (Kumar, Abbas and Fausto, 2005
See also
Acknowledgement and Attribution Regarding Sources of Content
Some of the initial content on this page may be incorporated in part from copyleft sources in the public domain including wikis such as Wikipedia and AskDrWiki. Drug information for patients came from the The National Library of Medicine. Infectious disease information may have come from the Centers for Disease Control (CDC). Differential Diagnoses are drawn from clinicians as well as an amalgamation of 3 sources: 1.The Disease Database; 2. Kahan, Scott, Smith, Ellen G. In A Page: Signs and Symptoms. Malden, Massachusetts: Blackwell Publishing, 2004:3; 3. Sailer, Christian, Wasner, Susanne. Differential Diagnosis Pocket. Hermosa Beach, CA: Borm Bruckmeir Publishing LLC, 2002:7 .
