2012 - SEEd

SEEd for Pharma | List of products and services for Pharmaceutical Companies
6
Titles in English
• Unusual Signs and Symptoms
in Internal Medicine.
12x17 cm; 72 pages
Titles in Italian
• Unusual Signs and Symptoms
in Neurology.
12x17 cm; 72 pages
• Unusual Signs and Symptoms
in Paediatrics.
12x17 cm; 80 pages
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UNUSUAL SIGNS AND SYMPTOMS
IN… SERIES
Despite the introduction of innovative technologies and accurate
laboratory techniques, an adequate anamnesis still remains the most
important tool to make a correct diagnosis. When signs and symptoms
described by the patients are unusual, the correct identification of the
disease becomes a very hard challenge for the clinicians. These books
aim at providing a support in the interpretation of the most unusual signs
and symptoms that can be faced in the clinical practice.
Each book collects 30 unusual symptoms that could be encountered by the
clinicians. Each sign is described in concise way (one sign/one page): a full
description of the symptoms as experienced by the patient is given, followed
by its clinical
meaning, the diagnosis
and therapeutic
approach.
Unusual Signs and Symptoms in Internal Medicine
10
3
Fear of Drinking Water
Hydrophobia (from the Greek, “fear of water”) is
a typical symptom of rabies, a fatal pathology of
the central nervous system transferred by some
animals (dog, bat, coyote, fox, marmot, lynx, and
others).
Rabies is a viral infection transferred through the bite (saliva) of an
animal infected by rhabdovirus. This is an RNA virus that spreads
in a centripetal manner through the axoplasm of the peripheral
nerves up to the central nervous system; here it replicates in the
grey matter and then migrates in a centrifugal manner along the
autonomic nervous system, reaching organs like salivary glands,
adrenal glands, kidneys, lungs, liver, cutis, and heart.
The incubation period ranges from 10 days to more than one year.
The prodromal period is characterised by aspecific symptoms followed
by the signs of the encephalitic phase, with derangement,
aggressiveness, spasms, photophobia, and vocal cord paralysis.
The subsequent manifestations, affecting the brain stem, may include
optic neuritis, diplopia, and swallowing difficulty.
Excessive salivation can give rise to the “frothing at the mouth”
phenomenon: violent contractions of the diaphragm and of the
pharyngeal and laryngeal muscles aroused by water intake (hydrophobia
in the strict sense of the word). The involvement of the
breath centres can provoke death by apnoea.
The diagnosis is not easy (frequently postmortem) and a specific
therapy does not exist.