Systemic Lupus Erythematosus Oxford Rheumatology Library Series

Systemic Lupus Erythematosus (often abbreviated to SLE or lupus) is a systemic autoimmune disease that can affect any part of the body, causing the immune system to attack the body's cells and tissue, and resulting in inflammation and tissue damage. This new addition to the Oxford Rheumatology Library series provides a practical approach to the assessment and management of patients with this complex, multisystem autoimmune disease to improve the diagnosis and treatment of the disease and its complications. It provides comprehensive but easy to assimilate reading for consultant rheumatologists, dermatologists, nephrologists, obstetricians and other specialists and their trainees, interested GPs, specialist nurses, and clinical trial teams both in hospitals and contract research organizations.

Caroline Gordon is a Professor in Rheumatology at the University of Birmingham and a Consultant Rheumatologist at Sandwell and West Birmingham Hospitals NHS Trust and University Hospital Birmingham NHS Foundation Trust. She set up the Birmingham lupus cohort and has also been involved in the development of the BILAG disease activity index and the SLICC/ACR damage index. In 2009 Professor Gordon was appointed advisory expert to the ESF Research Networking Programme: The Identification of Novel Genes and Biomarkers for Systemic Lupus Erythematosus (BIOLUPUS). David Isenberg is the Diamond Jubilee Arthritis Research UK Professor of Rheumatology at University College Hospital, London. He has been elected to Fellowships of both the Royal College of Physicians and the Academy of Medical Sciences, and is Chair of the British Isles Assessment Group and formerly the Chair (1998-2003) of the Systemic Lupus International Collaborating Clinics group (SLICC). Professor Isenberg is the 2010 recipient of the Evelyn Hess Prize from the Lupus Foundation of America for his contribution to lupus research and treatment, and he chairs the Research Committee for Lupus UK and Division 5 of north London's local clinical trials network.