What is a rheumatic disease?
Rheumatic diseases, sometimes called collagen or connective tissue diseases, include a variety of inflammatory conditions such as rheumatoid arthritis, systemic lupus, scleroderma, vasculitis and psoriatic arthritis. Each of the rheumatic diseases involves an autoimmune attack on different components of the body's tissues by the person's own immune system. The T cells and autoantibodies involved in the attack normally protect the body from viruses, bacteria, and other infectious agents. The attack by T cells and autoantibodies is misdirected to self-tissues and causes inflammation and loss of function. There are still many unanswered questions about the nature of each rheumatic disease, how tissue injury occurs, who will have a mild or a severe course and how to treat the disorder. There is a special problem in the treatment of the rheumatic diseases because T cells and autoantibodies are also needed to protect the individual from infection. Accordingly, therapy of these dise
