NEET MDS Lessons
General Pathology
Causes of disease
The causes of disease Diseases can be caused by either environmental factors, genetic factors or a combination of the two.
A. Environmental factors
Environmental causes of disease are many and are classified into:
1. Physical agents
2. Chemicals
3. Nutritional deficiencies & excesses
4. Infections & infestations
5. Immunological factors
6. Psychogenic factors
1. Physical agents
These include trauma, radiation, extremes of temperature, and electric power. These agents
apply excess physical energy, in any form, to the body.
2. Chemicals
With the use of an ever-increasing number of chemical agents such as drugs,
3. Nutritional deficiencies and excesses
Nutritional deficiencies may arise as a result of poor supply, interference with absorption, inefficient transport within the body, or defective utilization. It may take the form of deficiency.
4. Infections and infestations
Viruses, bacteria, fungi, protozoa, and metazoa all cause diseases. They may do so by causing cell destruction directly as in virus infections (for example poliomyelitis) or protozoal infections (for example malaria).
5. Immunological factors
A. Hypersensitivity reaction
This is exaggerated immune response to an antigen. For example, bronchial asthma can occur due to exaggerated immune response to the harmless pollen.
B. Immunodeficiency
This is due to deficiency of a component of the immune system which leads to increased susceptibility to different diseases. An example is AIDS.
C. Autoimmunity
This is an abnormal (exaggerated) immune reaction against the self antigens of the host. Therefore, autoimmunity is a hypersensitivity reaction against the self antigens. 4
6. Psychogenic factors
The mental stresses imposed by conditions of life, particularly in technologically advanced
communities, are probably contributory factors in some groups of diseases.
B. Genetic Factors
These are hereditary factors that are inherited genetically from parents.
Biochemical examination
This is a method by which the metabolic disturbances of disease are investigated by assay of various normal and abnormal compounds in the blood, urine, etc.
Chronic hepatitis
Chronic hepatitis occurs in 5%-10% of HBV infections and in well over 50% of HCV; it does not occur in HAV. Most chronic disease is due to chronic persistent hepatitis. The chronic form is more likely to occur in the very old or very young, in males, in immunocompromised hosts, in Down's syndrome, and in dialysis patients.
a. Chronic persistent hepatitis is a benign, self-limited disease with a prolonged recovery. Patients are asymptomatic except for elevated transaminases.
b. Chronic active hepatitis features chronic inflammation with hepatocyte destruction, resulting in cirrhosis and liver failure.
(1) Etiology. HBV, HCV, HDV, drug toxicity, Wilson's disease, alcohol, a,-antitrypsin deficiency, and autoimmune hepatitis are common etiologies.
(2) Clinical features may include fatigue, fever, malaise, anorexia, and elevated liver function tests.
(3) Diagnosis is made by liver biopsy.
8. Carrier state for HBV and HCV may be either asymptomatic or with liver disease; in the latter case, the patient has elevate transaminases.
a. Incidence is most common in immunodeficient, drug addicted, Down's syndrome, and dialysis patients.
b. Pathology of asymptomatic carriers shows "ground-glass"" hepatocytes with finely granular eosinophilic cytoplasm.
Post viral (post hepatitic) cirrhosis (15-20%)
Cause:- Viral hepatitis (mostly HBV or HCV)
Acute hepatitis → chronic hepatitis → cirrhosis.
Pathology
Liver is shrunken. Fatty change is absent (except with HCV). Cirrhosis is mixed.
M/E :-
Hepatocytes-show degeneration, necrosis as other types of cirrhosis.
Fibrous septa -They are thick and immature (more cellular and vascular).
- Irregular margins (piece meal necrosis).
- Heavy lymphocytic infiltrate.
Prognosis:- - More rapid course than alcoholic cirrhosis.Hepatocellular carcinoma is more liable to occur
Herpes zoster, or shingles
- represents reactivation of a latent varicella-zoster infection.
- virus lies dormant in sensory dorsal root ganglia and when activated involves the distribution (dermatome) of the sensory nerve with a painful vesicular eruption.
- trigeminal verve distribution → Ramsay Hunt syndrome
- may indicate the presence of advanced neoplastic disease or be a complication of chemotherapy.
Str. Pneumoniae
Probably the most important streptococci. Primary cause of pneumonia. Usually are diplococci. Ste. pneumoniae are α-hemolytic and nutritionally fastidious. Often are normal flora.
Key virulence factor is the capsule polysaccharide which prevents phagocytosis. Other virulence factors include pneumococcal surface protein and α-hemolysin.
Major disease is pneumonia, usually following a viral respiratory infection. Characterized by fever, cough, purulent sputum. Bacteria infiltrates alveoli. PMN’s fill alveoli, but don’t cause necrosis. Also can cause meningitis, otitis, sinusitis.
There are vaccines against the capsule polysaccharide. Resistance to penicillin, cephalosporins, erythromycins, and fluoroquinalones is increasing.
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.