Secondary Lupus???

Hi,

I'm new.  My ANA is 1:320, but none of the antibodies show up (such as SSA, DS-DNA, etc.) and my doctor says it is probably due to the inflammation in my gut causing a secondary lupus-like syndrome.  Is this possible?  Can a Lupus-like syndrome be caused by inflammation in a specific spot in the body (such as the small intestine)?

Thanks,

-Razzle (Allergies, Asthma, Sulfite Sensitivity, Gluten Sensitivity, ??Crohn's/something else, Arthritis, Osteoporosis, & who knows what else)

Hi Razzle and welcome. I'm not sure about lupus being secondary. I do know there is sometimes something called drug induced lupus caused by some meds. Lupus or lupus like syndromes can co-occur with other illnesses too. As I'm sure you have discovered, it can be really hard to sort out what might be causing your symptoms, especially since so many of these illnesses share so many of the the same symptoms. It can be so frustrating to know that something is wrong, but to not have any clear cut answers. From your signature it looks like you are having a lot of health problems. but docs are having a hard time coming up with a definite diagnosis. I'm sorry you are going through this. Ask any other questions you have and we'll do our best to answer them. Hang in there and keep us posted on what you find out. Take care

Hi Razzle,
I'm in the same boat with you. If you are overweight, carrying weight in the middle or top, have your insulin tested and your liver. You may have fatty liver from metabolic syndrome x (prediabetes-- also called diabetic liver), millions of Americans have this, whether you know it or not, and if you are overweight, you probably have it, though I had it when I was very skinny. It causes a raise in ANA and autoimmune problems and I think in the end they will find it is an autoimmune disease. It starts with insulin resistance caused by improper diet--to many carbs. Instead of burning sugar for energy, the liver stores it as fat and becomes enlarged. An abdominal ultrasound can show this. Eventually, the pancreas can't keep up with the huge demand for insulin and stops making insulin and you develop diabetes.

Right now, they believe fatty liver is caused by many things, but some scientists feel that those things only trigger the progression of the disease or may be symptoms rather than causes. The formal name is NAFLD (non-alcoholic fatty liver disease). I have sjogrens, which is related to NAFLD and some people with NAFLD do go on to develop ds-dna eventually and full-blown lupus. They used to not treat fatty liver or do anything about it, but now they are realizing it can be very serious and there are treatments available and diets for it and stuff you doc can do. If your doc believes that fatty liver is no big deal, they need to get updated.

I was labelled with secondary lupus because of the liver condition. I do not have dsdna, ssa or ssb, but biopsies of my salivary glands show chronic inflammatory cells of sjogrens, my schirmer test indicatesa AI disease, I have vitiligo, diabetes, hashimotos, osteoarthritis which are all ai diseases and have antibodies to my heart and my endocrine glands. I apparently did not inherit my AI disease, although I did inherit fatty liver.

Since you have gi problems, which I have also, it might make sense that they test you for something like that. I'm sure there are also other things that can cause lupus, but that is what I know about.

I'm glad you are here and look forward to hearing more from you! I hope you find an answer to your question!