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General Pathology

INFLUENZA

An acute viral respiratory infection with influenza, a virus causing fever, coryza, cough, headache, malaise, and inflamed respiratory mucous membranes.

Influenza B viruses typically cause mild respiratory disease

Symptoms and Signs

mild cases:

Chills and fever up to 39 to 39.5° C

Prostration and generalized aches and pains, Headache, photophobia and retrobulbar aching

Respiratory tract symptoms may be mild at first, with scratchy sore throat, substernal burning, nonproductive cough, and sometimes coryza. Later, the lower respiratory illness becomes dominant; cough can be persistent and productive.

severe cases

sputum may be bloody. Skin is warm and flushed. Soft palate, posterior hard palate, tonsillar pillars, and posterior pharyngeal wall may be reddened, but no exudate appears. Eyes water easily, and the conjunctiva may be mildly inflamed

Encephalitis, myocarditis, and myoglobinuria are infrequent complications of influenza and, if present, usually occur during convalescence

Erythema multiforme is a hypersensitivity reaction to an infection (Mycoplasma), drugs or various autoimmune diseases.
 - probable immunologic disease
 - lesions vary from erythematous macules, papules, or vesicles.
 - papular lesions frequently look like a target with a pale central area.
 - extensive erythema multiforme in children is called Stevens-Johnson syndrome, where there is extensive skin and mucous membrane involvement with fever and respiratory symptoms.

Cardiac tamponade
A. Caused by accumulation of fluid in the pericardium. This severe condition can quickly impair ventricular filling and rapidly lead to  decreased cardiac output and death.

1. Signs and symptoms include:
a. Hypotension.
b. Jugular venous distention.
c. Distant heart sounds.

Osteoporosis
 
is characterized by increased porosity of the skeleton resulting from reduced bone mass. The disorder may be localized to a certain bone (s), as in disuse osteoporosis of a limb, or generalized involving the entire skeleton. Generalized osteoporosis may be primary, or secondary


Primary generalized osteoporosis
• Postmenopausal
• Senile
Secondary generalized osteoporosis

A. Endocrine disorders
• Hyperparathyroidism
• Hypo or hyperthyroidism
• Others

B. Neoplasia
• Multiple myeloma
• Carcinomatosis 

C. Gastrointestinal disorders
• Malnutrition & malabsorption
• Vit D & C deficiency
• Hepatic insufficiency 

D. Drugs
• Corticosteroids
• Anticoagulants
• Chemotherapy
• Alcohol 

E. Miscellaneous
• osteogenesis imperfecta
• immobilization
• pulmonary disease 

Senile and postmenopausal osteoporosis are the most common forms. In the fourth decade in both sexes, bone resorption begins to overrun bone deposition. Such losses generally occur in areas containing abundant cancelloues bone such as the vertebrae & femoral neck. The postmenopausal state accelerates the rate of loss; that is why females are more susceptible to osteoporosis and its complications. 

Gross features
• Because of bone loss, the bony trabeculae are thinner and more widely separated than usual. This leads to obvious porosity of otherwise spongy cancellous bones

Microscopic features
• There is thinning of the trabeculae and widening of Haversian canals.
• The mineral content of the thinned bone is normal, and thus there is no alteration in the ratio of minerals to protein matrix

Etiology & Pathogenesis

• Osteoporosis involves an imbalance of bone formation, bone resorption, & regulation of osteoclast activation. It occurs when the balance tilts in favor of resorption.
• Osteoclasts (as macrophages) bear receptors (called RANK receptors) that when stimulated activate the nuclear factor (NFκB) transcriptional pathway. RANK ligand synthesized by bone stromal cells and osteoblasts activates RANK. RANK activation converts macrophages into bone-crunching osteoclasts and is therefore a major stimulus for bone resorption.
• Osteoprotegerin (OPG) is a receptor secreted by osteoblasts and stromal cells, which can bind RANK ligand and by doing so makes the ligand unavailable to activate RANK, thus limiting osteoclast bone-resorbing activity.
• Dysregulation of RANK, RANK ligand, and OPG interactions seems to be a major contributor in the pathogenesis of osteoporosis. Such dysregulation can occur for a variety of reasons, including aging and estrogen deficiency.
• Influence of age: with increasing age, osteoblasts synthetic activity of bone matrix progressively diminished in the face of fully active osteoclasts.
• The hypoestrogenic effects: the decline in estrogen levels associated with menopause correlates with an annual decline of as much as 2% of cortical bone and 9% of cancellous bone. The hypoestrogenic effects are attributable in part to augmented cytokine production (especially interleukin-1 and TNF). These translate into increased RANK-RANK ligand activity and diminished OPG.
• Physical activity: reduced physical activity increases bone loss. This effect is obvious in an immobilized limb, but also occurs diffusely with decreased physical activity in older individuals.
• Genetic factors: these influence vitamin D receptors efficiency, calcium uptake, or PTH synthesis and responses.
• Calcium nutritional insufficiency: the majority of adolescent girls (but not boys) have insufficient dietary intake of calcium. As a result, they do not achieve the maximal peak bone mass, and are therefore likely to develop clinically significant osteoporosis at an earlier age.
• Secondary causes of osteoporosis: these include prolonged glucocorticoid therapy (increases bone resorption and reduce bone synthesis.)
The clinical outcome of osteoporosis depends on which bones are involved. Thoracic and lumbar vertebral fractures are extremely common, and produce loss of height and various deformities, including kyphoscoliosis that can compromise respiratory function. Pulmonary embolism and pneumonia are common complications of fractures of the femoral neck, pelvis, or spine. 

Keloids
1. Characterized by a progressively enlarging scar.
2. Caused by an abnormal accumulation of collagen at the site of injury.
3. More common in African-Americans.

Systemic Candidiasis (Candidosis; Moniliasis)

Invasive infections caused by Candida sp, most often C. albicans, manifested by fungemia, endocarditis, meningitis, and/or focal lesions in liver, spleen, kidneys, bone, skin, and subcutaneous or other tissues.

Infections due to Candida sp account for about 80% of all major systemic fungal infections.

Symptoms and Signs

Esophagitis is most often manifested by dysphagia. Symptoms of respiratory tract infections are nonspecific, such as cough. Vaginal infections cause itching, burning, and discharge. Candidemia usually causes fever, but other symptoms are typically nonspecific. Sometimes, a syndrome develops resembling bacterial sepsis, with a fulminating course that may include shock, oliguria, renal shutdown, and disseminated intravascular coagulation.

Hematogenous endophthalmitis starts as white retinal plaques that can cause blindness as destructive inflammation progresses, extending to opacify the vitreous and causing potentially irreversible scarring. Most often, there are no symptoms in early stages of Candida endophthalmitis. If treatment is not begun before symptoms appear, significant or even total loss of vision is likely to occur in the affected eye. In neutropenic patients, eye involvement is more often manifested by retinal hemorrhages; papulonodular, erythematous, and vasculitic skin lesions may also develop.

Sickle Cell Disease

Sickle cell anemia is a autosomal recessive genetic disorder. It affects the BETA GLOBIN gene on the CHROMOSOME 16. In sickle cell anemia, the hemoglobin abnormality consists of a point mutation in the beta chain gene for hemoglobin; the resulting abnormal gene product is denoted HbS. If you are heterozygous for the HbS gene you will have what is called sickle trait, which is asymptomatic .

 If you are homozygous for the HbS gene  you will get sickle cell disease, which is symptomatic in most patients.
 The problem with HbS is that as it releases oxygen, it polymerizes and aggregates with other HbS molecules, making the red cell stiff and distorted. These distorted, sickle-shaped red cells are fragile so the patient can end up with a hemolytic anemia.
This can occur as pure disease (homozygous) or trait (heterozygous) or with other haemoglobinopathies. It is common. in Negroes. It is due to Hb-s  which is much less soluble than Hb-A  hence deoxygenation insoluble form  sickling of RBC.

This causes:
•    Removal by RE system. 
•    Blockage of microvessels causing  ischaemia.
 

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