Severe Involvement (severe + involvement)

Distribution by Scientific Domains
Distribution within Medical Sciences


Selected Abstracts


An approach to the management of necrotising fasciitis in neonates

INTERNATIONAL WOUND JOURNAL, Issue 2 2005
Soraya Zuloaga-Salcedo MD
Abstract Necrotising fasciitis is a severe, life-threatening soft tissue infection. It produces an extensive cellulitis with severe involvement of subcutaneous tissue, fascia, muscle or both, resulting in necrosis of the tissue. All age groups, including neonates, can be affected. Patients with necrotising fasciitis present with more severe constitutional symptoms and have a poor outcome, unless aggressive antibiotic therapy and surgical debridement are instituted promptly. The debridement of necrotic tissue is imperative to control the infection, but results in deep wounds that require further treatment. In this study, the neonate was treated with alginate dressings and negative pressure therapy after resolution of cellulitis, with excellent results and no untoward events. [source]


Severe drug-induced skin reactions: clinical pattern, diagnostics and therapy

JOURNAL DER DEUTSCHEN DERMATOLOGISCHEN GESELLSCHAFT, Issue 2 2009
Maja Mockenhaupt
Summary The spectrum of severe drug-induced skin reactions includes not only Stevens-Johnson syndrome (SJS) and toxic epidermal necrolysis (TEN) but also generalized bullous fixed drug eruption (GBFDE), acute generalized exanthematous pustulosis (AGEP) and hypersensitivity syndrome (HSS), also called drug reaction with eosinophilia and systemic symptoms (DRESS). These reactions differ in clinical presentation as well as prognosis, causative agents and therapy. Therefore, the appropriate diagnostic measures should be undertaken rapidly, in order to prove the diagnosis. In addition to a thorough clinical examination, a skin biopsy should be taken and specific laboratory investigations should be done if AGEP or HSS/DRESS is suspected. Since these reactions are drug-induced, the causative agent should be rapidly identified and withdrawn. Besides adequate supportive therapy, systemic immunomodulatory treatments may be considered. Despite intensive care management, the prognosis in SJS and TEN is often poor and influenced by the amount of skin detachment as well as the age of the patients and the pre-existing underlying conditions. Severe sequelae may develop in survivors and affect especially mucosal sites. The prognosis of GBFDE is better but recurrent events may lead to more severe involvement. In HSS/DRESS sequelae have been also described as well as long lasting and recurrent courses, whereas AGEP usually heals without problems. [source]


Midbrain SERT in degenerative parkinsonisms: A 123I-FP-CIT SPECT study,

MOVEMENT DISORDERS, Issue 12 2010
Francesco Roselli MD
Abstract SPECT imaging is widely used for the differential diagnosis of degenerative parkinsonisms by exploiting the high affinitiy of the radiotracer 123I-FP-CIT for the dopamine transporter. Reduced levels of DAT are found in Parkinson Disease (PD), Dementia with Lewy Bodies (DLB), and Progressive Supranuclear Palsy (PSP) compared to in Essential Tremor (ET) and Healthy Controls (HC). However, the extent of the neurodegenerative process may extend beyond nigrostriatal system. We have exploited the affinity of the same radiotracer 123I-FP-CIT for the serotonin transporter to investigate SERT levels in the midbrain of patients with PD, DLB, PSP, and ET compared to HC. Using MRI images as anatomical templates for midbrain uptake quantification, we found a mild decrease in SERT levels in PD compared to ET and HC, with marked inter-individual variability; on the other side, PSP and DLB patients displayed markedly reduced to undetectable levels of SERT, respectively. These findings show that the neurodegenerative process affects serotoninergic neurons in parkinsonisms, with much more severe involvement in DLB than in PD patients, despite the comparable loss of striatal DAT. SERT-dependent 123I-FP-CIT uptake may allow a more comprehensive assessment of neurochemical disturbances in degenerative parkinsonisms and may have a value for differential diagnosis. © 2010 Movement Disorder Society [source]


Patterns of muscle involvement in inclusion body myositis: Clinical and magnetic resonance imaging study

MUSCLE AND NERVE, Issue 11 2001
Beverley A. Phillips PhD
Abstract The differential patterns of muscle involvement in the upper and lower limbs in sporadic inclusion body myositis (sIBM) were examined in 18 patients using both quantitative and manual muscle testing as well as magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) in 9 patients. Weakness of the quadriceps femoris and the forearm flexors was present in most patients, but there was considerable variability in the patterns and severity of muscle involvement. MRI disclosed preferential patterns of muscle involvement within functional groups such as the quadriceps femoris, in which there was severe involvement of the vasti with relative sparing of the rectus femoris, and the triceps surae, in which selective involvement of the medial gastrocnemius was common. Involvement of flexor digitorum profundus on MRI was found in only one third of patients. The results emphasize the variability in the clinical phenotype and differential susceptibility of muscles to the disease process in sIBM. © 2001 John Wiley & Sons, Inc. Muscle Nerve 24: 1526,1534, 2001 [source]


Progressive supranuclear palsy: neuronal and glial cytoskeletal pathology in the higher order processing autonomic nuclei of the lower brainstem

NEUROPATHOLOGY & APPLIED NEUROBIOLOGY, Issue 1 2002
U. Rüb
The medial and lateral parabrachial nuclei (MPB, LPB), the gigantocellular reticular nucleus (GI), the raphes magnus (RMG) and raphes obscurus nuclei (ROB), as well as the intermediate reticular zone (IRZ) represent pivotal subordinate brainstem centres, all of which control autonomic functions. In this study, we investigated the occurrence and severity of the neuronal and glial cytoskeletal pathology in these six brainstem nuclei from 17 individuals with clinically diagnosed and neuropathologically confirmed progressive supranuclear palsy (PSP). The association between the severity of the pathology and the duration of the disease was investigated by means of correlation analysis. The brainstem nuclei in all of the PSP cases were affected by the neuronal cytoskeletal pathology, with the IRZ and GI regularly showing severe involvement, the MPB, RMG, and ROB marked involvement, and the LPB mild involvement. In the six nuclear greys studied, glial cells undergo alterations of their cytoskeleton on an irregular basis, whereby diseased oligodendrocytes predominantly presented as coiled bodies and affected astrocytes as thorn-shaped astrocytes. In all six nuclei, the severity of the neuronal or glial cytoskeletal pathology showed no correlation with the duration of PSP. In view of their functional role, the neuronal pathology in the nuclei studied offers a possible explanation for the autonomic dysfunctions that eventually develop in the course of PSP. [source]