The common complications of SLE mainly include renal lesions, respiratory lesions, cardiac lesions, neurological lesions, gastrointestinal symptoms, hematopoietic system abnormalities and so on.
1. Renal lesions: most patients will have renal involvement during the course of the disease, which is mainly manifested as nephritis and nephrotic syndrome, with red blood cells, white blood cells, protein and tubular urine, and renal biopsy reveals that almost all SLE patients have renal pathologic changes.
2. Respiratory system lesions: pleurisy is common, sometimes combined with pleural effusion, mostly exudate. It can also be accompanied by interstitial lung disease, which can have interstitial hairy glass-like changes and chronic interstitial fibrosis. Patients often have shortness of breath after activity, dry cough and hypoxemia.
3. Cardiac lesions: pericarditis is the most common, mainly dry fibrinous pericarditis, which can also cause constrictive pericarditis.
4. Neurological lesions: in mild cases, only migraine, personality change, memory loss or mild cognitive impairment; in severe cases, it may manifest as cerebrovascular accident, coma or epileptic status, etc., which may lead to death in severe cases.
5. Gastrointestinal symptoms: loss of appetite, dysphagia, nausea, vomiting, abdominal pain, diarrhea, ascites, blood in stool, etc. are common.
6. Hematopoietic system abnormalities: anemia is common, mostly normocytic orthochromatic anemia; leukopenia may also occur.
It is suggested that SLE patients should consult the rheumatology and immunology department of regular hospitals in time and follow the doctor’s instructions for standardized diagnosis and treatment.