Precautions for regular follow-up of lupus erythematosus

  SLE is a complex systemic immune disease that causes damage to many organs of patients, including the skin, kidneys and heart, and active outbreaks of the disease may cause acute renal failure and lupus encephalitis, which are life-threatening. This disease cannot be cured yet, and patients need long-term medication and regular follow-up checkups to control the development of the disease.  It is very important for patients with lupus erythematosus to have regular checkups. In addition, immunosuppressants can cause liver and kidney damage, and some patients may experience side effects such as gastrointestinal discomfort, etc. Depending on the severity of the adverse reactions, doctors will communicate with patients whether they need to change the medication; if the disease is under stable control, doctors will also If the disease control is stable, the doctor will also consider reducing the dosage of the drug.  Patients with lupus who visit the doctor for the first time need to bring all previous tests, such as routine blood and urine tests, various immunological tests, hepatitis and tuberculosis tests, etc. If the various tests have been recently checked in a tertiary care hospital, there is no need to repeat the tests in Beihang Hospital. During the consultation, the doctor will pay attention to the patient’s clinical symptoms, such as hair loss and joint swelling, etc. Whether spontaneous miscarriage or fetal abortion has occurred is also of great concern to the doctor to determine whether the lupus patient also has antiphospholipid antibody syndrome. The doctor will make a judgment based on the patient’s description and previous tests.  At the beginning of the treatment, patients need to come for a follow-up visit in two weeks to observe whether there are side effects in the medication regimen; after that, they can have a follow-up visit once a month, and each time they need to do routine urine and blood tests to check whether the medication has damaged the liver, kidney and hematopoietic system, and the routine urine tests can also monitor whether the patient has lupus nephritis; every 3-6 months, patients need to do immune system tests, such as immune 7 items and autoantibody tests, etc. If the ds-DNA antibody titer decreases and the complement C3 value increases, the disease tends to improve. However, Dr. Deng also pointed out that patients do not need to be overly obsessed with immune indexes. In some cases, if the immune indexes are abnormal but the patient does not have any symptoms or organ involvement, we do not need special treatment and can pay close attention to them.  Since lupus patients taking hormones and immunosuppressants affect their immunity, they must wear a mask when they visit the doctor to prevent infection; hormones can cause osteoporosis, so in addition to taking calcium supplements, patients should also get appropriate sun exposure and moderate activity to promote bone production. Patients with photosensitivity, strong sunlight will cause aggravation of facial erythema, it is recommended that patients can go out in the early morning or evening as appropriate, while wearing a good hat to prevent facial irradiation.