Does anyone have any knowledge of this? I was diagnosed recently ( along w SLE) and can’t find much information. Thanks!
wikipedia has great in depth definitions of macrophage BUT there is a Macrophage Community which is devoted for scientist studying them to have common site to share information. They show photos all different kinds in your body...they occur naturally. But as Ann points out they can indicate serious problems.
Here is the link to the community page... http://www.macrophages.com/
Seems to be tied in with juvenile RA...the actual disease that you mention and her link deals with completely.
If you just like to understand what a macrophage are since they do occur in our bodies naturally, wikipedia as excellent pate on them and how they work in the body.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Macrophage
I realize this is what the doctors were discussing about me and granuloma, nodules which were atypical and confusing to every kind of specialist that could possibly be in autoimmune area. As a child though, which might have helped me indirectly, i was given high doses of predisone because of being severely allergic to poison oak...it affected me internally not just on the skin..my eyes would be swollen shut even with pred pills for couple weeks at least. Was really nasty and only time, doctors would freak out by how i looked(nor was i ever allowed to wait in waiting room) and i was not even near as bad i got...make you laugh i had people scream if they came to our front door to sale items because my bedroom window faced that door, since i could not see if i did not hear them( tend to happen in winter worse) i could get up or even just walk back in and more than once i heard people, both men and women ..adults and teenagers scream and run away!! My mom said i was best defense against door to door salespeople!!
Hope that makes you laugh since it is very serious....i did and do grow nodules as part of my lupus...just curious and have had RA since my twenties pretty severely in feet mainly all smaller joints in them and my hands.
I realize i do not have it...or i know by now as adult...i have hoped one of my rheums would have told me...but i have had last one miss on so many other diseases ..i would not be surprise.
I wish you the best...it does sound scary but they are making huge strides in this area so try to not get too upset until you know all the facts. I have had doctors throw out many ideas and it could be taken as diagnosis if i did not flat out ask if it was for sure what they just said. I do wish you the best and am sorry that you must even deal with the idea. No matter you have support system here i hope you realize.
Thank you! Sounds like if it’s monitored it can be very controllable, which is great! I do have wierd nodules but nothing frankensteinish :). Which is fortunate since I teach kindergarten and my kids would be a little distracted! Thanks again!