• Arthritis
• Juvenile Arthritis
• Autoimmmune Diseases
  - Lupus
  - Scleroderma
  - Sjogrens Syndrome
  - Rheumatoid Arthritis
• Osteoporosis
• Fibromyalgia
• Lyme Disease
• Paget's Disease
• Bursitis & Tendonitis
• Back & Neck Pain
• Pain Management
• Clinical Immunology Lab

Autoimmune Diseases

Autoimmune diseases are the result of the body's defense system going awry. Humans have developed a very complex immune system to protect the body from invading infections, such as viruses, bacteria, fungi, and parasites. When functioning normally the immune system is important in maintaining good health and preventing serious illness from infection. Diseases such as AIDS are the result of immune deficiency and develop when the immune system is inhibited and underactive. Autoimmunity, on the other hand, results when the immune system mistakenly is activated and produces self-injury.

Autoimmune diseases include those that can affect the endocrine system and produce diabetes or attack the nervous system and produce diseases such as multiple sclerosis and myasthenia gravis. Autoimmune diseases also occur when the joints, muscles and internal organs of the body are injured by a misdirected immune system and produce rheumatic disease. The rheumatic diseases that result form autoimmunity that we treat at the Center for Arthritis and autoimmunity include rheumatoid arthritis, systemic lupus erythematosus or lupus, Sjogrens syndrome, mixed connective tissue disease, polymyositis, dermatomyositis, scleroderma and vasculitis. The precise role, if any, for autoimmunity in another group of diseases we treat, the spondyloarthropathies (ankylosing spondylitis, Reiters syndrome. psoriatic arthritis and enteropathic arthritis) is less clear.

Autoimmune diseases are more common in women. This may be a consequence of female sex hormones that otherwise provide a very efficient immune system to maintain healthy pregnancies. Autoimmune diseases often require for their treatment, not only anti-inflammatory therapy, but also drugs that suppress the immune system, hence the name, immunosuppressives. These agents include steroids (i.e. prednisone or medrol), methotrexate, azathioprine, or cyclophosphamide.

Physicians staffing the Center for Arthritis and Autoimmunity are experts in the diagnosis and treatment of these rheumatic, autoimmune disorders.