Summary

Praise for the previous print edition:

"...recommended for public and academic libraries as well as agencies and organizations that are involved with autoimmune diseases."—American Reference Books Annual

"Highly recommended for the academic and public library collection..."—Booklist

"...a timely resource...Recommended..."—Choice

"...this volume is a welcome addition to public, school, and consumer health libraries because it brings everything together in one place."—Library Journal

Although autoimmune diseases collectively affect more Americans than heart disease and cancer, they are not well understood. Autoimmune diseases generally result from the body's immune system mistaking its organs and cells for foreign bodies or invading bacteria and viruses and attacking them. Some autoimmune diseases include allergic asthma, lupus, muscular sclerosis, and rheumatoid arthritis. Symptoms range from mild to life-threatening, and because many autoimmune diseases are rare, it can be difficult for physicians to diagnose them.

The Encyclopedia of Autoimmune Diseases, Second Edition, featuring more than 120 articles and a glossary of more than 200 terms, has been updated to provide current information about the causes, symptoms, treatments of autoimmune diseases, and the medical and social issues related to them.

Topics include:

• Addison’s disease
• Chronic fatigue syndrome
• Fibromyalgia
• Guillain-Barré syndrome
• Infections and autoimmune diseases
• Juvenile rheumatoid arthritis
• Medications and autoimmune diseases
• Psoriasis
• Raynaud's phenomenon
• Systemic lupus erythematosus.

Specifications

eBook

About the Author(s)

Dana K. Cassell has been a professional writer and editor of nonfiction for more than 30 years. She has written four encyclopedias for Facts On File's Library of Health and Living series, including The Encyclopedia of Death and Dying; The Encyclopedia of Obesity and Eating Disorders, Third Edition; and The Encyclopedia of Pharmaceutical Drugs. She has also published more than 1,500 magazine articles, mostly in the trade journal field, with several dozen for Drug Topics and others in the pharmaceutical and medical fields.

Noel Rose, M.D., Ph.D., is the director of Johns Hopkins Autoimmune Disease Center and an expert in autoimmune disease. A graduate of Yale University, he earned his M.D. at the State University of New York in Buffalo and his Ph.D. from the University of Pennsylvania. Rose has written extensively about microbiology and the immune system for numerous medical journals and textbooks. He lives in Maryland.