"Meningitis" and "encephalitis" are two words that pop on the radar screens of most people from time to time, and usually in some scary context, like hearing of a cluster of cases in the school of their child, or reading Media reports of epidemics occurring nationally or internationally. While most people understand that these words mean, is there some kind of infection of the nervous system, other differences and effects that are often unspoken and vague or as a consequence canconfusing.
The basic concepts are built in the words themselves. Starting at the ends of words and work forward, "-itis" is the medical suffix meaning inflammation. Although it is possible for the inflammation occur without the presence of infection, as a practical matter, in most cases of meningitis or encephalitis, the inflammation is in fact due to infection.
The next step in understanding these concepts is to analyze the first parts of words. "Spinal meningitis" refers tothe meninges, the membranous coverings of the brain and spinal cord are. Thus, "meningitis" means inflammation or infection of the membranes surfaces. In contrast, "encephalopathy" refers to the brain or the brain (from the Greek word "enkephalos"), so "Encephalitis" means an inflammation or infection of the brain itself.
Although no cases of meningitis or encephalitis is trivial, depending on the data, some cases end up as a temporary illness, of which there is fullRecreation, while others can be damaging, however difficult or even fatal. In short, cases of meningitis caused by viruses usually with good results (even without treatment), while the cases of bacterial meningitis are very serious and require emergency treatment with powerful antibiotics. All cases of encephalitis - usually caused by viruses and not by bacteria - are serious, and antiviral therapy for a number of the viruses, but not everything.
Most cases ofeither meningitis or encephalitis fairly abrupt onset, sometimes after an infection appears elsewhere in the body, and sometimes not. As with most infections, fever, meningitis or encephalitis in most cases, but is not necessarily obvious. In both cases, the patient feels miserable in general, and often complains of pain in the head, neck, or both.
Because encephalitis involves infection of the brain itself, symptoms of altered brain functions - such as confusion or decreasedAttention - are present in the rule, while in the cases of meningitis, the patient must first carefully and, if distracted, understandably, of pain and misery, yet the command of their mental processes.
In both cases, immediate medical evaluation is important. Both meningitis and encephalitis, a lumbar puncture) (also known as lumbar puncture is usually of crucial importance to be aware of the presence of infection infected, identifying the organism and running a successful treatment. During an imaging test like aCT or MRI scan is often not considered as part of the assessment, it does not replace the lumbar puncture to determine the essential characteristics of the infection.
A lumbar puncture is usually performed with the patient lying on one side, curled into a fetal position. To provide the physician PREPS and drapes the patient's lower back, a sterile area in which to work. After anesthesia of the skin of the lower back, the doctor has a needle in the middle of the spine, puncture of the meninges. Inthe lower back there is no spinal cord, so there is no danger of puncturing it, too. Watery liquid in tubes, as it runs from the back of the needle. Then the needle is withdrawn.
This watery liquid is called CSF - short for Liquor - and because they reside (in the meninges outside the brain and spinal cord) holds, some of the key to the diagnosis of infection. Laboratory personnel can more tests directly to the fluid to run away, as the measurement ofConcentration of red and white blood cells and the concentrations of protein and sugar. An increase in the concentration of white blood cells (pus) cells and an increase in protein concentration is expected that results when the meninges are infected either by bacteria or viruses, with more pronounced changes in bacterial infections than in viral infections. Reductions in sugar concentration in bacterial but not viral infections frequently. Further tests on the CSF with inherent delays, likeattempts to grow bacteria from the CSF in petri dishes or other culture media.
In reality, cases of encephalitis usually include also an inflammation of the meninges, a man of linguistic accuracy can rightly claim that they "should meningo-encephalitis" to reflect the complexities of both the meninges and the brain. But in common parlance, the "meningo-" prefix is often dropped. Because the CSF changes in the two cases of meningitis and encephalitis, the most important clinical feature thatseparates the two is the mental condition of patients with confusion or decreased level of consciousness for a good reason to encephalitis.
After the CSF has collected, the physician can start treatment without the risk of obscuring the fluid diagnostic features. As long as the possibility of a bacterial infection, the doctor administered one or more antibiotics, usually via an intravenous catheter. If the clinical results could be interpreted by a treatable virusThe doctor also administers an antiviral medication. By exceeding the severity of these diseases, the benefits of treatment, risks, and when the dust laid, and the diagnosis is clear, of course, the treatment can be stopped without damage.
(C) 2005 by Gary Cordingley
0 comments:
Post a Comment