Autoimmune disorders

Symptoms:

Symptoms of autoimmune disease vary widely depending on the type of disease. A group of very non-specific symptoms often accompany autoimmune diseases especially of the collagen vascular type and include:

• tire easily
• fatigue
• dizziness
• malaise (nonspecific feeling of not being well)
• fever, very low grade temperature elevations

Specific autoimmune disease results in:

• destruction of an organ or tissue resulting in decreased functioning of an organ or tissue (for example, the islet cells of the pancreas are destroyed in diabetes mellitus)
• increase in size of an organ or tissue (for example, thyroid enlargement in Graves disease)

Note: Symptoms vary with the specific disorder and the organ or tissue affected.

Signs and tests:

Signs vary according to the specific disorder. A CBC may show increased numbers of white blood cells. Complement levels and levels of specific immunoglobulins or antigens may be elevated.

This disease may also alter the results of the following tests:

• platelet aggregation test
• eosinophil count - absolute