(2/9/99)

Sometimes the immune system that helps us fight illness backfires and attacks our bodies causing severe problems.

When that happens one disease that people develop is a kind of arthritis called lupus. It can be mild, or in some cases severe enough to damage the kidneys and brain.

But now researchers at the University of Alabama at Birmingham have developed a genetic test that can tell the difference. Dr. Robert Kimberly explains, "The value of this test is to help us understand whether the person is at risk for severe disease and the hope would be that we will be able to use less of those strong medicines in order to gain control of the lupus."

Those strong medicines can have severe side effects.

Lupus affects women about eight to ten times as often as men, and blacks more than whites. Lupus usually strikes people in their 20's or 30's.