"[Vitiligo] affects the neck, the face, the upper part of the wrists and the groin," he said. "And vitiligo is uncommon by itself. But with autoimmune disease, it's common."
If Jackson had lupus, it may also point to an underlying reason for what some close to the singer have said was an addiction to prescription pain medications.
"Quite a few of my patients have fibromyalgia, about 50 percent," Lahita said. "That's a terrible, chronic pain condition. He may have suffered from that."
But could lupus also explain some of the other health conditions Jackson is believed to have experienced?
According to Cherilyn Lee, a nurse who worked for Michael Jackson, the singer had also asked for the powerful anesthetic Diprivan in the days before his death in order to help him sleep. Lahita said that insomnia is also commonly associated with the type of lupus Jackson was believed to have had.
There are also suspicions, dating from an injury that Jackson sustained in 1984 in which his head was burned during the filming of a commercial, that Jackson wore a wig to cover hair loss.
"We call the hair loss alopecia, and it's very common," Lahita said. "And you may recall he had that commercial accident in New York City. That's probably the time when the discoid lupus was discovered on his scalp."
And since lupus can inflame the heart as well, Lahita said, it may be possible that the pop icon's ultimate demise could be linked to the condition once all of the results from his medical tests are known.
"One of the things about this remarkable disease is accelerated hardening of the arteries," Lahita said. "The heart is involved. The blood vessels are involved in most of my patients. And premature heart disease is very common."
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