The Board found no evidence of current cervical or lumbar degenerative joint disease, and denied service connection for these conditions. Service connection was also denied for systemic lupus erythematosus due to lack of a current disability.
The deciding factor: There is no current diagnosis of cervical or lumbar degenerative joint disease in the record, and the veteran's claim for systemic lupus erythematosus lacks a current disability as required by service connection criteria.
- Claimed conditions
- Degenerative Joint Disease of Cervical Spine, Degenerative Joint Disease of Lumbar Spine, Systemic Lupus Erythematosus
- How they argued it
- Direct service connection
- Exposure basis
- None
- Rating assigned
- None in this decision
- Decision date
- April 19, 2004
- Citation
- 0410076
Veterans Law Judge
Decisions by this judge: 1,987 · Granted: 15% (granted or partly granted, in the vetted decisions on this site)
Judge attribution: 2025 complete; earlier years partial.
This is a plain-language summary generated by AI from a public Board of Veterans’ Appeals decision. It can contain errors — always verify against the original. Look up the original decision on VA.gov (opens in a new tab) using citation 0410076.
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Related decisions
Other Board decisions on a similar condition or argued the same way.
- Granted
The Veteran's Systemic Lupus Erythematosus was pre-existing and worsened during service, thus meeting the criteria for service connection.
- Remanded (sent back)
The Veteran's degenerative joint disease of the lumbar spine and left leg radiculopathy have been granted a 40 percent rating. However, his right leg radiculopathy and left leg radiculopathy are remanded for further review.
- Denied
The Veteran's disability rating for systemic lupus erythematosus was reduced from 100% to noncompensable effective February 1, 2021. The Board found that the reduction was proper and denied restoration of the 100% rating.
- Remanded (sent back)
The Board has denied an increased rating for Systemic Lupus Erythematosus and has found the Veteran's right hand arthritis claim to be remanded due to a pre-decisional duty to assist error. The decision on the right hand arthritis claim will need to be reconsidered after obtaining necessary medical opinions.
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