Document Type

Doctoral Thesis

Disciplines

1.6 BIOLOGICAL SCIENCES, 3. MEDICAL AND HEALTH SCIENCES, Ophthalmology

Publication Details

A thesis submitted for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy School of Physics & Clinical & Optometric Sciences and Radiation and Environmental Science Centre, FOCAS Research Institute, Technological University Dublin, 2020.

doi:10.21427/4rha-1444

Abstract

The bidirectional cooperativity between the innate and adaptive arm of the immune network in response to foreign invaders has long been accepted. Under normal circumstances this response is very effective at eliminating infection, however, inappropriate activation triggered by self components is observed in autoimmune conditions such as Systemic Lupus Erythematosus (SLE) and Rheumatoid Arthritis (RA). Due to the overlapping nature of the symptoms of each of the syndromes, in terms of clinical and laboratory manifestations, and the lack of a single marker predictive methodology, the differential diagnosis and treatment of these patients still proves challenging. With the advent of targeted therapies, it is becoming increasingly important to accurately differentiate SLE and RA at an early stage of disease development in order to minimise the prolonged diagnosis timeframe and to ensure the efficacy of treatment for patients, decreasing their chances of developing serious long term side effects.

DOI

https://doi.org/10.21427/4rha-1444

Creative Commons License

Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License

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