Lupus or systemic lupus erythematosus is a rather common disease that affects majority of individuals and is related to the immune system. Normally, when an antigen enters into your body, antibodies are created in the body that plays the role of fighting against the infection. However, in case of autoimmune diseases like lupus, the immune system forms antibodies that also attack the cells of the body like they would to the antigens thus causing damage and inflammation to the tissues and cells of the body. Inflammation itself causes a lot of other issues like pain, itchiness, a lot of burning sensation and so on. The symptoms of this disease are not clear neither realized early most of the times but some of the common symptoms are pain in the joints accompanied by swelling, feeling of tiredness and fatigue, rashes arising out of nowhere, anemia and ulcers that occur in the mouth and nose.
Lupus blood tests and certain other tests are done in order to detect the presence of auto-antibodies and thus help in the diagnosis of lupus. This is essential as it can severely affect the body leading to some life threatening conditions of the health. It usually affects the skin, joints, heart, lungs, blood, kidneys and brain. It can also occur as a relapse and can remain in a person's body for years without showing any symptoms at all.
There are no special preparations that are required before a blood test for lupus. However, have a word with your doctor to resolve any queries or doubts that you may have in your mind before lupus blood testing.
Since the symptoms greatly vary from person to person a proper diagnosis becomes difficult due to which the doctor has to base his findings on analyzing the patient's symptoms by having a detailed examination of their medical history. Blood tests for lupus help in determining the presence of any antinuclear antibodies in the body as they indicate that the person is suffering from lupus. However, there are certain diseases that show the presence of these antibodies and therefore, there arises the need for conducting other tests that identify DNA antibodies. If these DNA antibodies are present in the body in high levels, it is a confirmation that the person has lupus. Blood is taken through a vein and sometimes there are 5 different tests that are carried out on this sample of blood