Myasthenia Gravis is a chronic autoimmune neuromuscular disorder, whereby voluntary muscle groups fluctuate by its level of weakness. While this disease affects multiple areas within the body, it most commonly affects the eyelid muscles, which causes the eyelid to droop, and or have blurred or double vision. Distant from complications within the occipital area, other symptoms include complexity in breathing and swallowing, an alteration in the eminence of one’s voice, increased jeopardy of gagging and choking, a weak cough, and slurred speech. Anyone of every ethnicity or gender can be diagnosed with this malady; however, it is further prevalent in women between twenty to forty years of age, with a mean of twenty-eight years of age and men between fifty and seventy years of age. Antibodies are proteins that are used by the immune system to detect antigens that attack the body. Abnormal antibodies are present in the immune system of one who is diagnosed with myasthenia gravis and can be detected within blood. Although myasthenia gravis can cause ones muscle strength to decrease overtime, it can be treated with the assistance of medications, therapies to help improve muscle strength, and surgery, aimed at the exclusion of the thymus gland. (Myasthenia Gravis Fact Sheet) (The Basics of Myasthenia Gravis) When analyzing this rare neuromuscular disorder, scientists believe the thymus gland, because adults with the disease have a thymus gland that is hefty and abnormal. Having a large thymus which helps to produce antibodies, plays a vital role in the formation of myasthenia gravis, gland is rare because scientifically, as one grows in age, the gland decreases in size and is replaced by fat. In a retrospective study of thirty eight p... ... middle of paper ... ...t in Asians, than other racial demographics. Prior to now, the female to male ratio of myasthenia gravis was three females to every two males; with females having predominance in younger adults and men having predominance in older adults. However, things have changed whereby as life expectancy is significantly increasing, males have a higher chance of obtaining this disease as compared to females. (Sheth, Kevin) The prognosis for those with myasthenia gravis is pretty vivid; reason being that most can be recovered to an extent from this morbidity. In patients with generalized weakness, the nadir of maximal weakness usually is reached within the first three years diagnosed with the disease. Therefore, those who survive their first three years of the disorder have a better likelihood to attain a stable state or progress their health related standing. (Sheth, Kevin)
First I will be discussing about the thyroid gland, so the thyroid gland is a gland in the neck that secretes hormones. These hormones regulate growth and development, and metabolism. The main hormone secreted is Thyroxine. So when a person like Margie is diagnosed with hypothyroidism it means the thyroid gland does not secrete enough hormones. As many females get over the age of 50, they are more at risk of developing hypothyroidism. The symptoms
"Duchenne Muscular Dystrophy: MedlinePlus Medical Encyclopedia." U.S National Library of Medicine. U.S. National Library of Medicine. Web. 20 May 2014.
Males and females appear to be affected proportionately. Crohn’s disease can occur in people of any age, but it is mostly a disease of adolescents and young adults. However, Crohn’s disease may occur in people over 70 years old and in young children (Crohn’s & Colitis Foundation of America, 2009). “Crohn’s disease appears to be caused by a dysfunctional inflammatory response in the gastrointestinal tract” (U. S. News, 2009). Inflammation is the body’s natural way to heal by sending immune cells to the site of the injury or invader.
When the throat muscles are affected, this causes problems with speech, swallowing , and chewing. Patients may choke easily and their speech is often nasal due to the weakness of the velar muscles. The arm and leg muscles may weaken affecting activities like lifting or walking, with some patients appearing to wobble. There may be a loss of balance and an uncoordinated walk. It would be difficult to hold or grab on to objects with weakened arm muscles. Approximately 15% of MG patients have a thymoma. In most cases the tumour is not harmful and can be treated. Breath...
The diagnosis for MG is often very difficult. Since there are many disorders that cause weakness, a number of tests may be used to determine a diagnosis of MG. In addition to a complete medical and neurological evaluation, a blood test for the abnormal antibodies can be completed to see if they are present. Three studies are used for the diagnosis of MG, anit-AchR antibody titers, the Tensilon test, and electromyography, including both the Jolly test and single fiber EMG. Used together, these three studies are almost 100% sensitive for Myasthenia Gravis.
Lupus is more common in women than men, and although it can affect people of all ages, it is most commonly developed between 15 and 40. Lupus is also more common in African Americans, Hispanics and Asians.
Graves’ disease is an autoimmune disease that was discovered by Robert Graves in 1835. Graves’ disease is an autoimmune disease in which the body's immune system attacks the thyroid gland and causes hyperthyroidism. Graves’ disease occurs when the antibodies like thyroid-stimulating immunoglobulin and thyrotropin receptor antibodies (TRAbs) attack the thyroid gland as if it were a foreign object or a virus of some sort. This disease is the most common type of hyperthyroidism. Attacking the thyroid gland in such a manner makes it excessively overproduce the hormone thyroxine which controls the body’s metabolic rate. Heightened activity of the thyroid can increase the body’s metabolism by 60% to 100%. (Weeks 34-35).
Lupus affects women more than men(www.womenshealth.gov). Lupus doesn’t come from a spider bite. Lupus means wolf in Latin in place of red ulcerations on the face(www.lupus-support.org). Nine out of ten people who get lupus are women, some have more problems with lupus than anyone else, but anyone can get lupus(www.medicinenet.com). It’s no reason why some have more problems than other’s(www.medicinenet.com). Lupus is three times more effective to African American women, than Caucasian women, it’s more common and severe in other minority populations, the cause of lupus is unknown(http://sciencelife.uchospitals.edu). Even though the cause of lupus isn’t known the genetic, hormonal, and environmental factors help in susceptibility(http://thelupusinitiative.org).
2. At age 4, James underwent a biopsy of the right gastrocnemius muscle. The pathologist's report noted histopathologic changes suggestive of Duchenne muscular dystrophy. Describe in detail the typical microscopic changes noted in the muscle tissue of someone with Duchenne's muscular dystrophy.
Myotonic Dystrophy. Yale University School of Medicine. 1998. Department of Neurology. February 14, 2009. < http://www.med.yale.edu/neurol/programs/neuromuscular/myontonic_dystrophy.html>.
The first historical account of muscular dystrophy was identified by Sir Charles Bell in 1830. He wrote about a disease that caused weakness in boys that progressively got worse. In 1836 another scientist whose name is unknown reported about two brothers who developed muscle damage, generalized weakness. Also damaged muscle was replaced with fat and connective tissue. At the time the symptoms were thought to point to tuberculosis. During the 1850s reports of boys with progressive muscle weakness became more and more common. There were also reports of these boys losing the ability to walk and dying at an early age. In the next decade French neurologist Guillaume Duchenne gave and in depth account of 13 boys who had the most common ...
The thyroid gland is found in the front of the neck and produces two main hormones. The hormones are called thuroxine (T4) and Triiodothyronine (T3). Together these hormones regulate the body’s metabolism by increasing energy use in cells, regulate growth and development, help to maintain body temperature and aid in oxygen consumption. These two hormones are regulated by hormones produced by the hypothalamus and pituitary gland. The hypothalamus senses changes in body’s metabolic rate and releases a hormone known as thyropin-releasing hormone (TRH). This hormone then flows through connecting vessels to the pituitary gland which signals it to release another hormone. This hormone is known as thyroid-stimulating hormone (TSH). TSH then makes its way to the bloodstream until it reaches the thyroid where it is then signaled to activate T3 and T4 production [1]. This mechanism is controlled by a negative feedback loop meaning that when there is a sufficient amount of thyroid hormones in the blood stream, this will signal back to stop production of thyroid stimulating hormones. Complications occur when the thyroid hormones keep increasing even though there is already a sufficient amount of T3 and T4 in the blood stream. This process of over expression of thryroid hormones is known as hyperthyroidism. Hyperthyroidism is a general term that includes any disease that has a consequence of an overabundance of thyroid hormones. Hyperthyroidism is a general term but there are many variant diseases that are in the hyperthyroidism category. These diseases include diffuse toxic goiter, Basedow’s disease, thyrotoxicosis, Parry’s and Graves’ disease.
known to be twice as likely to suffer from anxiety than males. On the other hand, an equal
When a person begins to suffer from Guillain- Barre Syndrome their myelin sheath of their nervous system is being attacked and destroyed by the immune system (NINDS, 2011). The myelin sheath begins to lose its ability to transmit signals rapidly and affectively. Since signals are not getting transmitted to the brain fast enough, a person begins to notice fewer sensory responses from the rest of the body (NINDS, 2011). A person wouldn’t be able to tell right away or at all if an item they are touching is hot, cold, or causing pain. There also wouldn’t be good signal transmission from the brain to the rest of the body (NINDS, 2011). There would be signs of the muscles being unable to respond to the weakened or distraught signals they were receiving. Since the myelin sheath is responsible for transmitting the signals from a long distance, the upper and lower extremities would be the first to show signs of muscle dysfunction.
Most of the statistics found only dealt with Duchenne muscular dystrophy in the U.S., so it is assumed that the disorder is more prominent in the United States. Also, there was no evidence that it affected any race more than another. www.ygyh.org - http://www.ygyh.org/. Concluding, Duchenne?s muscular dystrophy is an excellent example of a sexually-linked disease. Unfortunately, there is no cure, but research is being used to find more effective treatments. Most deaths caused by the disorder aren?t directly due to the muscles, but due to a respiratory disease or disorder.