What is this condition?

Volvulus is a 180-degree or more twist of the intestine. The twist pinches blood vessels and cuts off the blood supply to that section of the bowel.

What causes it?

The twist may be caused by an unusual curve in the intestine, something swallowed, or an adhesion. In some cases, however, the cause is unknown. The most common site, especially in adults, is the S-shaped section of the intestine before it reaches the rectum. In children, volvulus usually occurs in the small bowel.

What are its symptoms?

The person has vomiting and rapid, marked abdominal distention following the sudden onset of severe abdominal pain. Without immediate treatment, volvulus can lead to strangulation of the twisted bowel loop, loss of blood supply, deterioration, perforation, and fatal peritonitis when the bowel material infects the abdominal cavity.

How is it diagnosed?

The doctor will recognize the person’s description of sudden, severe abdominal pain and can probably feel the bulge of the intestine. Other special tests include the following:

• Abdominal and chest X-rays may show the obstruction and abnormal air-fluid levels in the bowels.
• Barium enema X-ray shows typical volvulus shapes.
• The person’s white blood cell count will be higher than normal.

How is it Treated?

Surgery is recommended for children with midgut volvulus. For adults with lower colon volvulus, the doctor will use a scope to check for packed feces. If possible, the doctor removes the blockage by inserting a scope or a long rectal tube to deflate the bowel.

If volvolus surgery is required and the bowel is distended but healthy, the surgeon will untwist the bowel. If there’s tissue damage, the damaged part will be cut away and the healthy intestine reconnected.

What do doctors call this condition?

Thrombocytopenia

What is this Condition?

Low platelet counts are the most common cause of bleeding disorders. Because platelets playa vital role in blood clotting, this disorder poses a serious threat to the body’s ability to control bleeding.

The prognosis depends on how well the person responds to treatment of the underlying cause. For example, in drug-induced platelet shortage the person may recover immediately if the offending drug is withdrawn.

What Causes It?

A shortage of platelets may be congenital (present at birth) or, more commonly, acquired. In either case, the condition usually results from decreased or defective production of platelets in the bone marrow (as occurs in leukemia, aplastic anemia, or poisoning with certain drugs) or from increased platelet destruction outside the marrow caused by an underlying disorder (such as cirrhosis of the liver, disseminated intravascular coagulation, or severe infection).

Less commonly, a low platelet count results from sequestration or platelet loss. An acquired low platelet count may result from the use of certain drugs.

What are its Symptoms?

A platelet shortage typically produces a sudden onset of red spots or bruising on the skin or bleeding into any mucous membrane. Nearly all people with this disorder lack other symptoms, although some may complain of malaise, fatigue, and general weakness. In adults, large blood-filled blisters characteristically appear in the mouth. In a severe low platelet count, hemorrhage may lead to rapid heart rate, shortness of breath, loss of consciousness, and death.

How is it Diagnosed?

The doctor obtains a history (including a drug history), performs a physical exam, and orders coagulation studies to provide information on platelet count and bleeding time. If increased platelet destruction is causing the low platelet count, bone marrow studies are ordered.

How is it Treated?

The preferred treatment is to eliminate the underlying cause or, in a drug-induced platelet shortage, to discontinue the offending drug. Other possible treatments may include giving corticosteroids or immune globulin to increase platelet production. Platelet transfusions are helpful only in treating complications of severe hemorrhage.

What is this Condition?

Idiopathic thrombocytopenic purpura, a low platelet count that results from platelet destruction by the immune system, may be acute or chronic. The acute form usually affects children between ages 2 and 6; the chronic form mainly affects adults under age 50, especially women between ages 20 and 40.

The prognosis for the acute form is excellent; nearly 4 out of 5 people recover without treatment. The prognosis for the chronic form is good; remissions lasting weeks or years are common, especially among women.

What Causes it?

Idiopathic thrombocytopenic purpura may be an autoimmune disorder, because antibodies that reduce the life span of platelets have been found in nearly all persons with this disorder. The acute form usually follows a viral infection, such as German measles or chicken pox, and can follow immunization with a live virus vaccine. The chronic form is often linked to immune disorders such as lupus. It’s also linked to drug reactions.

What are its Symptoms?

symptoms include red or purple spots on the skin and mucosal bleeding from the mouth, nose, or gastrointestinal tract. Hemorrhage is rare. Purpuric lesions may occur in vital organs, such as the lungs, kidneys, or brain, and may prove fatal.

The acute form usually begins suddenly and without warning, causing easy bruising, nosebleeds, and bleeding gums. The chronic form begins gradually.

How is Idiopathic Thrombocytopenic Purpura Diagnosed?

Results of lab tests, including platelet count and bleeding time, suggest the diagnosis. Anemia may be present if bleeding has occurred. Bone marrow studies may also provide important information.

How is it Treated?

The acute form may be allowed to run its course without intervention, or it may be treated with glucocorticoids or immune globulin. For the chronic form, corticosteroids may be the initial treatment of choice. People who fail to respond within 1 to 4 months or who need a high dosage are candidates for surgical removal of the spleen. The platelet count typically increases spontaneously after this procedure.

What can a Person Suffering with this Disease Do?

Avoid aspirin and Advil, which can cause bleeding.

What are these Conditions?

Aplastic or hypoplastic anemias result from injury or destruction of stem cells, which are located in the bone marrow and function to produce new blood cells. These anemias impair production of all blood cell types (pancytopenia) or retard bone marrow development (bone marrow hypoplasia) and generally progress to fatal bleeding or infection.

What Causes them?

Aplastic anemias usually develop when damaged or destroyed stem cells hinder production of red blood cells. Less commonly, they result from damaged vessels in the bone marrow. About half of these anemias result from certain drugs, poisons (such as the solvent benzene and the drug chloramphenicol), or radiation. The rest may result from immunologic factors, serious diseases (especially hepatitis), or bone marrow cancers.

What are their Symptoms?

Symptoms of aplastic anemias vary with the severity of pancytopenia and often develop gradually. Anemia, which is a shortage of red blood cells, may cause progressive weakness and fatigue, shortness of breath, headache, pallor and, ultimately, rapid heart rate and congestive heart failure. A low platelet count leads to red or purple spots on the skin and hemorrhage, especially from the mucous membranes (nose, gums, rectum, vagina) or into the retina or central nervous system. Neutropenia (deficiency of neutrophils, a type of white blood cell) may lead to infection (fever, oral and rectal ulcers, sore throat) without inflammation.

How are they Diagnosed?

To confirm aplastic anemia, the doctor will order a series of blood tests that measure the number and size of red blood cells, the number of white blood cells, iron levels, clotting time, and other factors. Bone marrow aspiration from several sites may provide additional data.

How are they Treated?

Effective treatment must eliminate any identifiable cause and provide vigorous supportive measures, including transfusions of specific blood elements. Even after the cause is eliminated, recovery can take months. Bone marrow transplantation is the treatment of choice for anemia due to severe aplasia and for people who need continual red blood cell transfusions. Special infection control precautions are used to prevent infection in people with low white blood cell counts. If an infection develops, it may require antibiotics; however, antibiotics must be administered carefully because they tend to encourage resistant strains of organisms. Some people may need oxygen to help them breathe. Other treatments include drug therapy with steroids, which are successful in children but not in adults. Drugs that stimulate the bone marrow, such as androgens, are controversial. Antilymphocyte globulin, an experimental drug, may be used. If a person doesn’t respond to any other therapy, drugs that suppress the immune system may be tried.

Leukemia – Treatment for Curing it Fast and Effectively

Leukemia is a cancer of white blood cells. Normally the number of white blood cells that are produced equals the number that die off as part of the natural process of cell turnover in the body. This keeps the total number of white blood cells constant. In leukemia, white blood cells often multiply at an increased rate. It is also significant that the cancerous cells tend to live longer than normal white blood cells. Thus the number of abnormal cells increases, either gradually or rapidly, and this causes an over accumulation of leukemic cells throughout the body. These cells often interfere with the functions of various organs. And, because the cells are abnormal, they do not cope effectively with infectious agents that the normal white blood cells help to eliminate from the body.

There are two main types of leukemia, which affect different types of white blood cells. Lymphocytic leukemia is a malignancy of lymphocytes and/or the cells from which they originate. Myelogenous (or granulocytic) leukemia is a cancer of the cells from which granulocytes originate. Both of these leukemias may be acute or chronic. Acute lymphocytic leukemia mainly affects children; it is discussed elsewhere .

Anemia of Chronic Disease – Remedies for the Treatment of Its

This type of anemia frequently complicates other diseases. Disorders that often bring on this type of anemia include rheumatoid arthritis hepatitis and tuberculosis. It can also occur in anyone who has an acute infection such as pneumonia .The symptoms of anemia of chronic disease are the same as those for other forms of anemia, combined with the symptoms of the underlying disease. It cannot be treated, except by transfusions, but it should improve when the disease that produces it improves in response to treatment.

Thalassemia – Causes and Symptoms of Thalassemia

In this disorder an inherited defect prevents the formation of normal amounts of hemoglobin A, the type of hemoglobin that is found in the red blood cells after the first few months of life. As a partial compensation, the cells contain hemoglobin F, a type of hemoglobin that is usually found only in newborn babies. However, only a relatively small amount of hemoglobin F is made in adults who have thalassemia, so their red blood cells contain less hemoglobin than normal. In addition, the majority of the red blood cells produced in this condition are destroyed within the bone marrow, and those that remain can survive only a short time.

The full-blown form of the disorder, called thalassemia major, occurs only if you inherit the defect from both of your parents. It produces severe anemia. When you inherit the defect from only one parent, the result is the thalassemia “trait.” This rarely causes any symptoms or disability.

What are the symptoms?

The symptoms of thalassemia major are similar to those of hemolytic anemia . They include paleness, tiredness, weakness, breathlessness and palpitations, or increased awareness of your heartbeat. A child who has the disease will be relatively inactive and will also be unable to keep up with his or her playmates.

What are the risks?

Thalassemia trait is several times more common than thalassemia major. Both forms of the disorder are relatively common in per­sons from the Mediterranean area, the Middle East and the Far East.

If you have the trait, you are at little or no risk. If you have thalassemia major, repeated blood transfusions are needed to treat the anemia. This treatment eventually causes a build-up of iron in your body, which damages the liver and the heart. Atone time, this led to death from liver or heart failure. There is now a treatment available that makes it possible to remove the iron.

What should be done?

If you or your child displays any of the symptoms described, see your physician, who will consider the possibility of thalassemia, especially if this disease is known to run in your family. Initially the doctor will arrange for a blood sample to be taken and tested to confirm or reject this possibility.

If you have any form of the disease in your family, even as the trait, and you are considering having a child, be sure to see your physician about the possibility of your child being affected by the disease.

What is the treatment?

The underlying genetic defect that causes thalassemia cannot now be cured. If you have the disease, regular blood transfusions throughout your life will relieve the symptoms of anemia, and it is now possible to use only young red cells in the transfusions. These survive longer, and therefore you can reduce the frequency of the transfusions. Also, you need a drug that causes your body to eliminate excess iron.

Sickle-Cell Anemia – How to Cope up with Sickle-Cell Anemia?

In the inherited disease called sickle-cell anemia, the red blood cells contain an abnormal hemoglobin, called hemoglobin S. If you have this disease, you have no normal hemoglobin in your red blood cells, because you have inherited a sickle-cell gene from each of your parents. This condition must be distinguished from sickle-cell trait, in which you inherit only one sickle-cell gene from one parent. Then you have red cells that contain half normal hemoglobin and half hemoglobin S, and your health is not impaired. In addition to hemolysis, or premature destruction of red blood cells, hemoglobin S causes red cells of persons with sickle-cell anemia to become deformed in shape, or “sickled,” especially in parts of the body where the amount of oxygen is relatively low. These abnormal blood cells do not flow smoothly through the capillaries, or smaller blood vessels. They may clog the vessels, and prevent blood from reaching the tissues. This blockage causes anoxia, or lack of oxygen, which makes the sickling worse. Attacks of this kind are called sickle-cell “crises.” They can be very painful.

What are the symptoms?

If you have sickle-cell anemia, you will have all the symptoms of anemia . In addition, you may have occasional sickle-cell crises, which produce attacks of pain in the bones and abdomen. You may also develop blood clots in the lungs, kidneys, brain, and most other organs.

How often crises occur varies a great deal from one person with the disease to another. Crises are more likely to occur during infections and after an accident or injury. They also occur with anesthesia and surgery if appropriate precautions are not taken.

Both the sickle-cell trait and sickle-cell anemia are virtually unknown except in people of African descent and in persons from parts of Italy, Greece, Arabia and India. About 1 in every 1000 black Americans has sickle-cell anemia.

What are the risks?

There is virtually no risk from sickle-cell trait, but a man and woman who both have the trait can produce a child with sickle-cell anemia. If you have sickle-cell anemia, you risk painful crises. Abnormalities of bone growth and severe infection from certain bacteria may also occur. Severe sickle-cell crises can damage most organs in your body by impairing blood flow, and this damage can lead to death from heart failure kidney failure or stroke.

What should be done?

If you or your child displays any of the symptoms described, see your physician, who will consider the possibility of sickle-cell anemia, especially if the disease is known to run in your family. Analysis of a blood sample will disclose whether the disease is present.

If you are of African descent and you are considering getting married or having a child, it is wise for you to be tested for sickle-cell trait. Because the trait is relatively common in the black population, about 6 of every 1000 black couples will have the capability of producing a child with sickle-cell anemia.

What is the treatment?

There is now no cure for an inherited disease such as sickle-cell anemia, but the symptoms can be treated. Crises of acute pain are the most common problem. These are treated with painkillers, and you often have to be admitted to the hospital for them. It is extremely important that you do everything possible to maintain good health, and that you obtain prompt treatment for infections, injuries and other illnesses. Also, you should see a physician regularly who is thoroughly familiar with the disease. Special precautions are necessary before you have any surgery, including dental surgery. Also, you should not fly in an un pressurized airplane or be at altitudes above about 6000 feet, at least not without special precautions and instructions.

Blood disorders – How to Cope up with Blood disorders?

Your blood has two basic parts: blood cells, which are also called blood corpuscles; and plasma, the fluid in which the blood cells are suspended. The disorders of the blood that are discussed in this section are principally concerned with the blood cells.Most of the blood cells in your body are red blood cells. Their main function is to carry oxygen from the lungs to all parts of the body. Red blood cells contain a protein called hemoglobin, which combines with oxygen in the lungs and releases it to the tissues as the blood circulates through your body. The red blood cells also carry the waste product carbon dioxide from the tissues to the lungs so that it can be exhaled.

Your body also contains white blood cells, which protect the body from infection. There are several different kinds of white blood cells. Most of them are neutrophils, which attack and engulf bacteria. Another kind, the lymphocyte, recognizes foreign cells, infectious agents, and other foreign substances and participates in the body’s immune reaction against them. There are other varieties of white blood cells, but these two are the most numerous.

A third type of blood cell is the platelet. Platelets gather wherever a blood vessel is injured, to plug the hole. This is the first stage in the blood clotting process. Chemical substances in the plasma then assist in forming a clot that seals the wound.

Most blood cells are produced in the bone marrow. However, lymphocytes are made in the spleen or in the lymph glands, which are found in the neck, armpits, groin and many other parts of the body. The spleen and lymph glands, together with the channels and ducts connecting them, are called the lymphatic system. When red blood cells and platelets become old or defective they are filtered out of the bloodstream and broken down by the spleen, and also by the liver and lymph glands.

Disorders of the blood are grouped as follows: lack of hemoglobin, which causes anemia; disorders in clotting, which cause bleeding and bruising; cancerous changes in the white cells, which cause leukemia; disorders in the production of blood cells in the bone marrow; and disorders that affect the lymphatic system.