Symptoms:

Symptoms vary from person to person, and may come and go. Almost everyone with SLE has joint pain and swelling. Some develop arthritis. Frequently affected joints are the fingers, hands, wrists, and knees.

Other common symptoms include:

• Chest pain when taking a deep breath
• Fatigue
• Fever with no other cause
• General discomfort, uneasiness, or ill feeling (malaise)
• Hair loss
• Mouth sores
• Sensitivity to sunlight
• Skin rash -- a "butterfly" rash over the cheeks and bridge of the nose affects about half of people with SLE. The rash gets worse in sunlight. The rash may also be widespread.
• Swollen lymph nodes

Other symptoms depend on what part of the body is affected:

• Brain and nervous system: headaches, numbness, tingling, seizures, vision problems, personality changes
• Digestive tract: abdominal pain, nausea, and vomiting
• Heart: abnormal heart rhythms (arrhythmias)
• Lung: coughing up blood and difficulty breathing
• Skin: patchy skin color, fingers that change color when cold (Raynaud's phenomenon)

Some patients only have skin symptoms. This is called discoid lupus.

Signs and tests:

To be diagnosed with lupus, you must have 4 out of 11 typical signs of the disease.

Your doctor will perform a physical exam and listen to your chest with a stethoscope. An abnormal sound called a heart friction rub or pleural friction rub may be heard. A nervous system exam will also be done.

Tests used to diagnose SLE may include:

• Antibody tests, including antinuclear antibody (ANA) panel
• CBC
• Chest x-ray
• Kidney biopsy
• Urinalysis

This disease may also alter the results of the following tests:

• Antithyroglobulin antibody
• Antithyroid microsomal antibody
• Complement components (C3 and C4)
• Coombs' test - direct
• Cryoglobulins
• ESR
• Kidney function blood tests
• Liver function blood tests
• Rheumatoid factor

This list is not all inclusive.