Hi Nancy,
I guess the answer is strictly speaking only in lupus. You are quite right that the diseases are very closely related, but I suspect that is there is a malar rash then the disease would be better described as lupus than sjogrens. This is probably espcially so if the rash is biopsied and confirmed as being lupus. A "malar" rash that is actually rosacia or another conditition wouldn't count.
Academics tend to be stricter about definitons and criteria than practitioners, so what gets written and what happens in realitiy sometimes diverge. I figure we also have a long way to go in completely understanding how all these diseases fit together, and it seems the more we learn the less clear it becomes:hehe:
X C X
I guess the answer is strictly speaking only in lupus. You are quite right that the diseases are very closely related, but I suspect that is there is a malar rash then the disease would be better described as lupus than sjogrens. This is probably espcially so if the rash is biopsied and confirmed as being lupus. A "malar" rash that is actually rosacia or another conditition wouldn't count.
Academics tend to be stricter about definitons and criteria than practitioners, so what gets written and what happens in realitiy sometimes diverge. I figure we also have a long way to go in completely understanding how all these diseases fit together, and it seems the more we learn the less clear it becomes:hehe:
X C X
