Children with Lupus have a more lethal form of kidney disease - Assignment Example

Download file to see previous pages... In that case, research study may contribute awareness and familiarity, as well as necessary action in handling patients, especially children, with lupus. Relevance of Kidney Disease in Children with Lupus Introduction Systematic Lupus erythematosus (SLE), or Lupus, in its simple term, is a chronic autoimmune disease. Autoimmune disease is an illness that occur when the body’s immune system becomes hyperactive and functions abnormally by attacking various normal and healthy tissues of the body. The body’s immune system is designed to fight bacterial agents and other foreign microbes, or antigens, that entered into human body. Under normal function, the body’s immune system produces antibodies that are made up of proteins to protect and fight the antigens such as viruses and bacteria. In lupus patients, the immune system produce abnormal antibodies in their blood. With abnormal antibodies, immune system is now unable to distinguish healthy tissues from antigens, therefore the immune system will direct the antibodies against healthy tissues rather than the foreign infectious agents or antigens, causing swelling, pain, and damage to body tissues and organs such as skin, kidneys, blood, heart and lungs (Shiel & Stoppler, n.d.) . But how come kidneys are complicatedly affected? The normal function of kidneys are to remove waste materials from the human like creatinine and urea from the blood. Creatine is a subset of protein, wherein antibodies are also made up of protein. If the blood contains high levels of creatinine and urea, kidney weaken its function. That’s why if blood or protein in the urine is found during a urine test, it is a sign of kidney damage. Since immunity system of a lupus patient abnormally produce antibodies that are made up of protein, high level of it inside the body, especially in the blood will tend to a kidney failure. So, presumably children with lupus might develop kidney failure. Literature Review: According to research conducted by John Hopkins Children’s Center (2010), that in more than 98,000 children and adults with different kinds of end-stage kidney disease (ESKD), those with lupus, Systematic Lupus Erythematosus (SLE), have a more lethal form of kidney disease. Researchers analyzed data specifically reports that “children with lupus kidney disease had more than twice (2.4 times) the risk of dying compared to children with other forms of kidney disease” (para.5). Research analysis was based on 98,483 ESKD patients, wherein 171 of them were children with lupus, with the record of 29 fatalities, while in non-lupus ESKD, among 3,276 children 316 died. The reported common cause of death was heart disease due to complication. Also, according to their research analysis, that among children with lupus, eighty percent suffer kidney disease, commonly called Lupus Nephritis, and with the recorded number of deaths seventy-five percent died of heart failure, mostly heart attack. Base on this statistical report seriously speaking, lupus and kidney disease is a deadly combination. Research analysis shows that the vital organs that are commonly and primarily affected by lupus are heart and kidneys. How does lupus affect our kidneys? Dr. Carl F. Anderson (2010) explained first how lupus manifest in one human body. Being an autoimmune disease, as I explained in my introduction, the body’s immune system mistakenly recognized our own tissue as pathogens. Thereby, our immune ...Download file to see next pagesRead More