What is Acute disseminated encephalomyelitis (ADEM)?

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Acute disseminated encephalomyelitis (ADE) is a neurological disorder involving inflammation of the brain and spinal cord. A hallmark of the disorder is damage to the myelin sheath that surrounds the nerve fibers in the brain, which results in the inflammation.
Description
Acute disseminating encephalomyelitis was first described in the mid-eighteenth century. The English physician who first described the disorder noted its association with people who had recently recovered from smallpox. Symptoms often develop without warning. As well, mental disorientation can occur. The disorder is also known as postinfectious encephalomyelitis and immune-mediated encephalomyelitis. The nerve demyelination that occurs in ADE also occurs in multiple sclerosis. However, the two maladies differ in that multiple sclerosis is long lasting and can recur over time, while ADE has a monophasic course, meaning that once it is over, further attacks rarely occur.
Demographics
ADE can occur in both children and adults, although it occurs more commonly in children. ADE is not rare, accounting for approximately 30% of all cases of encephalitis (brain inflammation).
Causes and symptoms
Acute disseminating encephalomyelitis can occur as a consequence of a bacterial or viral infection (including HIV), following recovery from infection with the malarial protozoan, or as a side effect of vaccination or another inoculation. ADE is usually a consequence of a viral illness, and occurs most often after measles, followed by rubella, chicken pox, Epstein-Barr, mumps and pertussis (whooping cough). Typically, symptoms appear two to three weeks after the precipitating infection or immunization. Alternatively, ADE may develop with no known associations.

Despite the different causes, the symptoms that develop are similar. A number of non-specific symptoms, which vary from one person to another, include headache, stiff neck, fever, vomiting, and weight loss. These symptoms are quickly followed by lethargic behavior, seizures, hallucinations, sight difficulties, and even coma. Paralysis can occur in an arm or leg (monoparesis) or along an entire side of the body (hemiplegia).
Treatment
Corticosteroid medication is often prescribed in order to lessen the nerve inflammation. Use of high doses of steroids can often produce a rapid diminishing of the symptoms. Other kinds of treatment depend on the nature of the symptoms that develop.
I hope this is of use to you best wishes and good luck  (+ info)

What is Acute demyelinating encephalomyelitis ?

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Five year ago i was diagnosed with ms and then they didnt know if i really had it. The mri indicated plaques on my brain 10 of them. They did a spinal tap and it indicated that my protein level was high. most thing were presented negative except for mri
i was told it was silimlar in some ways to ms
Acute disseminated encephalomyelitis (ADEM) is characterized by a brief but intense attack of inflammation in the brain and spinal cord that damages myelin – the protective covering of nerve fibers. It often follows viral infection, or less often, vaccination for measles, mumps, or rubella.

Treatment for ADEM is targeted at suppressing inflammation in the brain using anti-inflammatory drugs. Most individuals respond to intravenous corticosteroids such as methylprednisolone. When corticosteroids fail to work, plasmapheresis or intravenous immunoglobulin therapy has been shown to produce improvement. Additional treatment is symptomatic and supportive  (+ info)

What is Acute disseminated encephalopathy?

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Acute disseminated encephalomyelitis (ADEM) is a nonvasculitic inflammatory demyelinating condition that bears a striking clinical and pathological resemblance to multiple sclerosis (MS). However, in most instances, ADEM and MS cases occurring in children are readily distinguishable on the basis of clinical features and findings on laboratory investigations. MS is typically a chronic relapsing and remitting disease of young adults, while ADEM is typically a monophasic disease of prepubertal children. Abnormalities of findings on cerebrospinal fluid immunoglobulin studies are likely in MS but are much less common in ADEM. The onset of ADEM usually occurs in the wake of a clearly identifiable febrile prodromal illness or immunization and in association with prominent constitutional signs and encephalopathy of varied degree, features that are uncommon in MS.

However, the division between these processes is indistinct, which is suggestive of a clinical continuum. Moreover, other conditions along the suggested continuum include optic neuritis, transverse myelitis, and Devic syndrome, clinical entities that may occur as manifestations of either MS or ADEM. Other boundaries of ADEM merge indistinctly with a wide variety of inflammatory encephalitic and vasculitic illnesses as well as monosymptomatic postinfectious illnesses that should remain distinct from ADEM, such as acute cerebellar ataxia (ACA). A further indistinct boundary is shared by ADEM and Guillain-Barré syndrome and is manifested in cases of Miller-Fisher syndrome and encephalomyeloradiculoneuropathy (EMRN).

Susceptibility to either condition is likely the product of multiple factors, including a complex interrelationship of genetics and exposure to infectious agents and possibly other environmental factors. Of particular interest are the indications that susceptibility to either condition is in part age related. Most cases of either MS or of ADEM possibly occur as the result of an inflammatory response provoked by prepubertal infection with a virus, viral vaccine, or other infectious agent. Typically, the manifestations of ADEM occur quickly after this prepubertal febrile systemic illness and are monophasic. In a minority of cases, patients with ADEM experience 1 or 2 prepubertal recurrences followed by remission.

MS, on the other hand, typically manifests as a relapsing-remitting illness in ensuing adolescence or young adulthood, a significant and unexplained latency of effect with apparent permanency of immunodysregulation. Bouts of MS occur without febrile prodrome. Uncommonly, MS develops in prepubertal individuals and ADEM develops in postpubertal individuals, and some cases of adolescent-onset MS may go into remission. In very rare instances, individuals manifest prepubertal ADEM and, after long latency, MS in adolescence.

Hope this helps!  (+ info)

What does acute opiate intoxication mean in regards to death?

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I am confused about a cause of death. It is listed as an accidental head injury caused by acute opiate intoxication. What does that mean?
Means the person was high on Morphine or some other opiate and they fell and hit their head, resulting in their death.  (+ info)

What is the difference between an acute and chronic bacterial infection?

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Where is the line drown. For example if acute septic infection from streptococci is partially treated but the organisms are still in body 9 months later then is that still acute or is that still considered chronic. I know this is a strange question but please let me know.
acute is small amount.

chronic, is like major.

it wont be chronic.

it will still be acute until they leave the body  (+ info)

What is the difference between acute and chronic mono?

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My doctors just ruled out a past infection of mono and told me I have either chronic or acute mono, and I don't know the difference.
I'm not sure how it specifically applies to mono, but, medically speaking, acute means "short and intense" and chronic is long lasting but generally not as severe.

So chronic mono is most likely the form that lasts 6 months to a year and acute may be something you could recover from in a couple of months.

I hope that helps.  (+ info)

How long does it take for acute paronychia to go away?

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I have a case of acute paronychia on my left middle finger and I have had it for about, three or four days. I started taking some kind of antibiotic yesterday but it doesn't seem to be working. How long would it usually take to go away?
That would be about a week or so. Keep soaking the area daily, gently pulling the skin away from the nailbed after soaking for 20-30 minutes. Sometimes, the skin will break open an allow the pus to come out. Otherwise, take your antibiotic as directed until every pill is gone.  (+ info)

What is the difference between bronchitis and acute bronchitis?

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The doctor told me I had "acute bronchitis" and I was wondering what the difference was between that and normal bronchitis. Thanks in advance!
Acute bronchitis is caused by a viral illness - this type is the "normal" bronchitis. Chronic bronchitis is seen almost exclusively in smokers.
It's all inflammation of the larger airways called "bronchi".  (+ info)

Can someone who was previously infected with acute hepatitis C but has been cleared of it still infect others?

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"The other 15% of hepatitis C virus infected individuals simply have an acute infection; that is, one that resolves spontaneously in a few weeks or months".
Is there still a possibility of someone who fits the above description, to infect their spouse with hepatitis C?
No
Hep C is super, super hard to transmit.
If your Hep C is cleared, that means you have NO active viral particles in your blood. That is good!
Even if you have chronic positive, it is still hard to transmit, for example, my husband's mother has had it since before he was even born. He does not have it, and his dad does not have it. So, you see it does not transmit so easily.
I would not be freaking out at this point at all.  (+ info)

What is acute care transcription and what kind of things do I need to know for a verbal test?

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Do I just need to know formats or do I need to know special terminology. I have done radiology before but I am unclear as to what is included with acute care transcription.
acute care is hospital transcription.
The test may cover formats and information included in the basic 4 acute care types -- Historys and Physicals, Discharge Summaries, Operative Notes, and Consultations.
Google samples of each to review terminology and basic format, if needed.  (+ info)

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