INFLAMMATORY CONDITIONS AND THE HUMAN BODY

OBJECTIVES:  By the end of the discussion, the reader/medical student will be able to;

1.  Describe the process of inflammation in relation to the functioning of the human body

2.  Explain the consequences caused by inflammation into the human body

3.  Outline the medical management of inflammation

NEW TERMS

1.  Analgesia:  This term means alleviating pain and subsequent drugs that accomplish that are known as analgesics

2.  Pyrexia:  This term means fever and drugs that arrest fever are called antipyretics

INFLAMMATORY CONDITIONS AND THE HUMAN BODY:  The inflammatory process is a response by the human body to invaders.  It is a process that aims at not only fighting, but also elimination of any new antigens that happen to enter the body.  Whether microbes, chemicals, foreign particles or incompatible food stuffs, the body will always try to make sure it does not affect the body in any way.  Inflammation is the body's second line of defense.  If you have not been following me, click here to read more about the body's lines of defense.  In our series of discussion here, we are going to look at some of the most common inflammatory conditions that can affect the human body.  We have already looked at the inflammatory process earlier involving redness of the affected tissue, swelling, increased temperature and loss of function as detailed in the link below.

The process of inflammation

THE EXTENT OF DAMAGE MADE BY INFLAMMATION:  Inflammation can be seen in many dimensions including the time it can be taking affecting a given part of the human body, and in that respect we shall be looking at acute versus chronic inflammation.  I just discussed chronic inflammation recently and you can click here to read about it.  On the other hand, it can be localized where a specific area or organ is involved, or generalized, where the entire body is involved.

When addressing issues concerning inflammation, we normally end with the suffix itis on the organ or tissue associated for examples; If the inflammation happens in the liver cells and because medically the liver cells are known as hepatocytes, the condition will be termed hepatitis.  In other words when an organ is involved, we tend to add the suffix itis to the name of the organ for example if the pancreas is involved, the condition is known as "Pancreatitis".

MANAGEMENT OF INFLAMMATION:  Inflammation is a deadly body response that require immediate attention.  Whether local or systemic, the process produces inflammatory mediators that can cause various effects on the body like we saw earlier.  When inflammation is systemic, the resultant inflammatory effects include development of fever.  Because inflammation is always accompanied by pain and swelling as we saw under the cardinal signs of inflammation, the drugs that are used in management of the condition will have some property of arresting pain as well and alleviate swelling and loss of function if possible.  In that respect, we shall be refering such types of drugs as anti-inflammatory, but to be more specific, a precise ant-inflammatory drug will posses 3 properties namely; 

1)  Analgesic or pain killing, 

2)  Antipyretic or anti-fever because pyrexia means fever in medical language and 

3) Anti-inflammatory for arresting the whole process of inflammation.  I have discussed more about analgesics in some of my previous discussions and you can follow the embedded link to read more about them.

RELATED;

1.  BODY'S LINES OF DEFENSE 

2.  THE PROCESS OF INFLAMMATION

3.  CHRONIC INFLAMMATION

4.  HEPATITIS

5.  PANCREATITIS

6.  FEVER

7.  ANALGESICS