Influenza
Chris Carter in Critical Care Nursing in Resource Limited Environments, 2019
Influenza causes severe respiratory illnesses, which often require admission to hospital and critical care. Diagnosis of influenza is predominately clinically; however, tracheal secretions can be sent for laboratory testing. Rapid influenza diagnostic tests are available but have a lower sensitivity than other methods and reliability is determined by the conditions in which they are used. The World Health Organization identifies three types of influenza: seasonal, pandemic, and zoonotic or variant. Potential differential diagnosis to influenza includes community acquired pneumonia, hospital acquired pneumonia, severe acute respiratory infection, exacerbation of chronic lung disease, for example asthma or chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, sepsis, encephalopathy, encephalitis, transverse myelitis, meningitis, Guillain-Barre syndrome, myocarditis and rhabdomyolysis. Patients with suspected or confirmed influenza could transmit the pathogen to healthcare workers. Influenza can be a common reason for admission to critical care in seasonal epidemics. Influenza is a respiratory illness with a wide range of signs and symptoms.
Skin disorders in AIDS, immunodeficiency, and venereal disease
Anupam Das, Sumit Sethi in Concise Dermatology, 2021
Acquired immune deficiency syndrome (AIDS) is a symptom complex caused by a lymphotropic retrovirus, now known as the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV). Skin disorders are prominent in AIDS, and patients often present with a skin complaint. Invasive deep fungal infections have been reported to be one of the major causes of mortality in HIV/AIDS patients, accounting to almost 50% of all AIDS-related deaths globally. Pruritus occurs in almost 30% of AIDS patients and is considered to be one of its markers. Mycobacterial infections have been reported to be the commonest triggering factor for IRIS, apart from viral, fungal, parasitic, and other non-infectious conditions like Guillain-Barre syndrome, autoimmune thyroiditis, non-Hodgkin's lymphoma, and myopathy. Other cutaneous manifestations also require symptomatic treatment like topical corticosteroids, antipruritics, and emollients. The older Wassermann reaction has been replaced by the VDRL test, a flocculation test, which, although not specific, is quite sensitive and becomes positive early in the disease.
Parainfectious Demyelinating Diseases of the Nervous System
U. K. Misra, J. Kalita, R. A. Shakir in Tropical Neurology, 2003
There is a wide spectrum of demyelinating diseases of the cerebral and peripheral nervous systems which are temporally related to infection. These diseases are not due to direct injury by the organism as the neurological signs appear late in the course or weeks after recovery and the virus cannot be isolated from the neural tissues despite presence of inflammation and demyelination on histopathology. The post-infectious demyelinating syndromes are usually associated with virus-like illnesses but can also occur following immunization, bacterial infection, surgery and pyretotherapy. The spectrum of parainfectious demyelinating syndromes is wide and includes the following disorders: 1) acute disseminated encephalomyelitis; 2) acute hemorrhagic leukoencephalitis; 3) acute transverse myelitis; 4) optic neuritis; 5) cerebellitis; 6) Guillain Barre syndrome (GB Syndrome); and 7) brachial and lumbosacral plexopathy.
Is serum bilirubin associated with the severity of Guillain–Barré syndrome?
Published in International Journal of Neuroscience, 2018
Xiaohong Li, Wenchao Li, Xiang Shi, Lijun Mo, Yuzhen Luo, Liuqun Qin, Zheng Yang, Wuning Mo
Objective: Our aim was to assess the correlation between serum bilirubin levels and Guillain–Barré syndrome (GBS). Patients and methods: One hundred and one newly diagnosed patients with Guillain–Barré syndrome and 111 healthy age- and sex-matched individuals in the First Affiliated Hospital of Guangxi Medical University (Guangxi, China) from June 2012 to May 2017 were included in this study. Clinical characteristics and laboratory parameters of Guillain–Barré syndrome patients and healthy controls were retrospectively analysed. Results: Serum bilirubin levels in Guillain–Barré syndrome patients were significantly lower as compared with those in healthy controls (p < 0.001); besides, log C-reactive protein and erythrocyte sedimentation rate were significantly higher. We found that there was a negative correlation between GBS disability scale scores and total bilirubin, direct bilirubin, indirect bilirubin (r = −0.541, P
Roles of macrophage migration inhibitory factor in Guillain-Barré syndrome and experimental autoimmune neuritis: beneficial or harmful?
Published in Expert Opinion on Therapeutic Targets, 2018
Donghui Shen, Yue Lang, Fengna Chu, Xiujuan Wu, Ying Wang, Xiangyu Zheng, Hong-Liang Zhang, Jie Zhu, Kangding Liu
Introduction: Macrophage migration inhibitory factor (MIF) plays an important role in the pathogenesis of Guillain-Barré syndrome (GBS) and its animal model experimental autoimmune neuritis (EAN), which may offer an opportunity for the development of the novel therapeutic strategies for GBS. Areas covered: ‘macrophage migration inhibitory factor’ and ‘Guillain-Barré syndrome’ were used as keywords to search for related publications on Pub-Med, National Center for Biotechnology Information (NCBI), USA. MIF is involved in the etiology of various inflammatory and autoimmune disorders. However, the roles of MIF in GBS and EAN have not been summarized in the publications we identified. Therefore, in this review, we described and analyzed the major roles of MIF in GBS/EAN. Primarily, this molecule aggravates the inflammatory responses in this disorder. However, multiple studies indicated a protective role of MIF in GBS. The potential of MIF as a therapeutic target in GBS has been recently demonstrated in experimental and clinical studies, although clinical trials have been unavailable to date. Expert opinion: MIF plays a critical role in the initiation and progression of GBS and EAN, and it may represent a potential therapeutic target for GBS.
Thyroid hormone level is associated with the frequency and severity of Guillain–Barré syndrome
Published in International Journal of Neuroscience, 2017
Yuanyuan Huang, Zhaojian Ying, Zhibo Chen, Weiwei Xiang, Zhongqian Su, Weiwei Quan, Yiyun Weng, Xu Zhang
Objective: Guillain–Barré syndrome (GBS) is a neurodegenerative and inflammatory demyelination disorder, and oxidative stress is concerned with the pathogenesis of the disease. Also, we found that thyroid hormone level is correlated to the oxidative and antioxidant status in previous studies. Our study was aimed to find the possible relationship between the frequency and severity of GBS and thyroid hormone levels. Materials and methods: We measured serum levels of thyroid-stimulating hormone (TSH), free thyroxine (FT4) and free triiodothyronine (FT3) in 238 individuals, including 90 GBS, 44 multiple sclerosis and 104 healthy controls. Results: Our findings demonstrate that the patients with GBS had lower TSH and higher FT4, FT4/FT3 than healthy controls in the normal range. Furthermore, it was also shown in our study that TSH levels in patients with GBS were correlated with disease severity measured by the Hughes Functional Grading Scale. Conclusion: Lower TSH, higher FT4 and FT4/FT3 stand for the oxidative status and are associated with the incidence and severity of GBS.
Related Knowledge Centers
- Peripheral Nervous System
- Polyneuropathy
- Guillain
- Chronic Inflammatory Demyelinating Polyradiculoneuropathy
- Barre Syndrome
- Polyradiculoneuropathy
- Post-Infectious Disorders