Mycobacterium leprae 

- tuberculoid type has intact cellular immunity
 - forms granulomas and kill the organisms (very few present).
 - evokes a positive lepromin skin test
 - localized skin lesions that lack symmetry
 - nerve involvement (organisms invade Schwann cells) that dominates the clinical picture and leads to skin anesthesia, muscle atrophy and autoamputation.
 - lepromatous leprosy patients lack cellular immunity
 - no granulomas
 - organisms readily identified
 - negative lepromin skin test
 - Bacteremia disseminates to cooler areas like the digits.
 - symmetrical, skin lesions that produce the classic leonine facies; biopsy reveals grentz zone in superficial dermis and then organisms in macrophages.
 - neural involvement is a late feature of the disease.
 - lepromin skin test is to determine host immunity; not a diagnostic test.
 - treatment: dapsone + rifampin

Hepatitis

Hepatitis viruses—this group of viruses causes hepatitis, a disease affecting the liver.
1. General characteristics of hepatitis.
a. The general presentation of hepatitis is the same regardless of the infecting virus; however, the time and severity of symptoms may differ.
b. Symptoms of hepatitis include fever, anorexia, malaise, nausea, jaundice, and brown-colored urine.
c. Complications of a hepatitis infection include cirrhosis, liver failure, and hepatorenal failure.

Haemolytic anaemia 

Anemia due to increased red cell destruction (shortened life span)

Causes:

A. Corpuscular defects:

1.Membrane defects:

    - Spherocytosis.
    - Elliptocytosis.

2. Haemoglobinopathies:

    - Sickle cell anaemia.
    - Thalassaemia
    - Hb-C, HBD, HbE.
    
3. Enzyme defects .deficiency of:

    - GIucose -6 phosphate dehydrogenase (G6-PD)
    - Pyruvate kinase
    
4. Paroxysmal nocturnal haemoglobinuria.

B. Extracorpusular mechanisms 

1. Immune based:
    - Autoimmune haemolytic anaemia.
    - Haemolytic disease of new born.
    - Incompatible transfusion.
    - Drug induced haemolysis
    
2. Mechanical haemolytic anaemia.
3. Miscellaneous due to :

    - Drugs and chemicals.
    - Infections.
    - Burns.

features of haemolytic anaemia

- Evidence of increased Hb breakdown:

    -> Unconjugated hyperbilirubinaemia.
    -> Decreased plasma haptoglobin.
    -> Increased urobilinogen and stercobilinogen.
    -> Haemoglobinaemia, haemoglobinuria and haemosiderinuria if Intravascular haemolysis occurs.

- Evidence or compensatory erythroid hyperplasia:

    -> Reticulocytosis and nucleated RBC in peripheral smear.
    -> Polychromasia and macrocytes 
    -> Marrow erythroid hyperplasia
    -> Skull and other bone changes.

- Evidences of damage to RBC:

    -> Spherocytes and increased osmotic fragility
    -> Shortened life span.
    -> Fragmented RBC.
    -> Heinz bodies.
 

Congenital heart defect
Congenital heart defects can be broadly categorised into two groups,
o    acyanotic heart defects ('pink' babies) :

 An acyanotic heart defect is any heart defect of a group of structural congenital heart defects,  approximately 75% of all congenital heart defects.
 It can be subdivided into two groups depending on whether there is shunting of the blood from the left vasculature to the right (left to right shunt) or no shunting at all.

Left to right shunting heart defects include 
- ventricular septal defect or VSD (30% of all congenital heart defects),
- persistent ductus arteriosus or PDA, 
- atrial septal defect or ASD, 
- atrioventricular septal defect or AVSD.

Acyanotic heart defects without shunting include 
- pulmonary stenosis, a narrowing of the pulmonary valve, 
- aortic stenosis 
- coarctation of the aorta.

cyanotic heart defects ('blue' babies). 
obstructive heart defects

 cyanotic heart defect is a group-type of congenital heart defect. These defects account for about 25% of all congenital heart defects. The patient appears blue, or cyanotic, due to deoxygenated blood in the systemic circulation. This occurs due to either a right to left or a bidirectional shunt, allowing significant proportions of the blood to bypass the pulmonary vascular bed; or lack of normal shunting, preventing oxygenated blood from exiting the cardiac-pulmonary system (as with transposition of the great arteries).

Defects in this group include 
hypoplastic left heart syndrome,
tetralogy of Fallot, 
transposition of the great arteries, 
tricuspid atresia, 
pulmonary atresia, 
persistent truncus arteriosus.
 

Rocky Mountain Spotted Fever (Spotted Fever; Tick Fever; Tick Typhus)

An acute febrile disease caused by Rickettsia rickettsii and transmitted by ixodid ticks, producing high fever, cough, and rash.

Symptoms and Signs

The incubation period averages 7 days but varies from 3 to 12 days; the shorter the incubation period, the more severe the infection. Onset is abrupt, with severe headache, chills, prostration, and muscular pains. Fever reaches 39.5 or 40° C (103 or 104° F) within several days and remains high (for 15 to 20 days in severe cases),

Between the 1st and 6th day of fever, most patients develop a rash on the wrists, ankles, palms, soles, and forearms that rapidly extends to the neck, face, axilla, buttocks, and trunk. Often, a warm water or alcohol compress brings out the rash. Initially macular and pink, it becomes maculopapular and darker. In about 4 days, the lesions become petechial and may coalesce to form large hemorrhagic areas that later ulcerate

Neurologic symptoms include headache, restlessness, insomnia, delirium, and coma, all indicative of encephalitis. Hypotension develops in severe cases. Hepatomegaly may be present, but jaundice is infrequent. Localized pneumonitis may occur. Untreated patients may develop pneumonia, tissue necrosis, and circulatory failure, with such sequelae as brain and heart damage. Cardiac arrest with sudden death occasionally occurs in fulminant cases.

THE ADRENAL GLANDS 
ADRENAL CORTEX 
The adrenal cortex synthesizes three different types of steroids: 
1. Glucocorticoids (principally cortisol), which are synthesized primarily in the zona fasciculata 
2. Mineralocorticoids, the most important being aldosterone, which is generated in the zona glomerulosa; and 
3. Sex steroids (estrogens and androgens), which are produced largely in the zona reticularis.  

ADRENAL MEDULLA

The adrenal medulla is populated by cells derived from the neural crest (chromaffin cells) and their supporting (sustentacular) cells. 
They secrete catecholamines in response to signals from preganglionic nerve fibers inthe sympathetic nervous system.