Treatment of Pain in Patients with Reynaud’s Syndrome
Reynaud’s syndrome or the white fingers disease is a vessel abnormality that can lead to vessel spasm in the leg, arms and feet. The condition is caused by over activity of the smooth muscles located in the arterial walls. The condition was named after a Parisian Physician, Maurice Reynaud who discovered it in the latter half of the 19t century. The phenomenon is more pronounced in people less than 40 years old and is five times more frequent in women than men. Reynaud syndrome commonly occurs as reactionary response to cold exposure, although the condition may be precipitated by other factors including emotional distress, family history smoking and estrogen exposure. This syndrome can occur both as a primary and secondary symptoms
…show more content…
Symptoms
• Appearance of a clear line between the affected and the unaffected skin
• Appearance of a pallor of the distal potion in one or several digits excluding the thumbs
• Pain in the digit or numbness followed by cyanosis of the digits.
• The digits may become red and feel warm; these syndromes characterize the onset of the hypaeramic phase.
2. Treatment
People with Reynaud’s syndrome should wear layers of clothing and gloves during cold in order to overcome mild symptoms of the disease. Medicines are normally given as treatment for severe conditions of the disease. Treatment is usually given with the aim of preventing damage to tissue; minimize the number and severity of attacks and to treat underlying condition.
a). Common Medications
Medicines for treating Reynaud’s disease are usually given based on the established cause of the symptoms. Most Reynaud’s syndrome medications work by widening the blood vessels to promote blood circulation. Below are common Reynaud’s syndrome medicines
• Alpha blockers – Alpha blockers normally counteract the actions of norepinephrine, goof examples include doxazosin and
Medical treatments such as chemotherapy used in cancer treatment, oral contraceptives, beta-adrenergic blockers used for controlling blood pressure and retinoids used for the treatment of acne and other skin diseases.
that cause dark red blotches on the skin, usually on the face). Laboratory tests are another consideration of diagnosis. Tests consist of anti-nuclear anti-body (ANA) counts and anti-topoisomerase (an enzyme that reduces super-coiling in DNA by breaking and rejoining one or both strands of DNA). High ANA’s and low anti-topoisomerases are found in patients with Raynaud syndrome. (Desai, 2003) “Patients with circulating autoantibodies, antinuclear antibodies, and anti-Scl 70 antibodies are at (an) increased risk of developing a connective tissue disease. Systemic sclerosis is the connective tissue disease most frequently associated with Raynaud’s phenomenon.” (Bowling, 2003) This syndrome is described as primary Raynaud phenomenon (PRP) if is not associated with another disorder and as secondary Raynaud phenomenon (SRP) if it occurs in association with another disorder.
Dupuytren’s Disease, also known as Dupuytren’s Contractures, palmar fascitis, Viking Disease, or palmar fibromatosis, is a hand deformity that usually develops slowly, usually over years. This disease is caused by the thickening and contraction of the palmar fascia. As the disease progresses, nodules progress to form longitudinal bands referred to as cords on the palmar fascia, and the finger gradually loses extension, with contractures that draw one or more fingers into flexion at the metacarpophalangeal (MCP) joint, proximal interphalangeal (PIP) joint, or both of these joints.
Canavan disease is a rare genetic disorder that causes progressive damage to the nerve cells in the brain. While not yet curable, many therapies and experimental treatments are available to help those affected. As time goes on scientists will only continue to find a cure for Canavan disease and hopefully in the near future they will find one.
Rheumatoid arthritis is a chronic inflammatory and an autoimmune disease that occurs when the immune system mistakenly attacks the body’s tissue (Rheumatoid arthritis, 2017). This disease affects the entire body, which is called a systemic (means entire body) disease. Arthritis is derived from the word part arthr-, which means “joint,” and -itis, which means “inflammation,” so altogether it means “inflammation of the joints.” It creates inflammation that causes the tissue that lines the inside of joints (synovium) to thicken. About 1.5 million people in the U.S. are affected. It affects all races, but it affects three times as many women than men (What is Rheumatoid Arthritis, n.d.). Overtime, rheumatoid arthritis causes painful swelling that can potentially result in bone erosion or joint deformity, which leads up to physical disabilities. RA can affect more than just your joints, but can spread to body systems, skin, eyes, lungs, heart, blood vessels, e.t.c (Rheumatoid arthritis, 2017).
In the United States 54 million people have a disability and only 15 percent were born with a disability (Jaeger & Bowman, 2005). If a person lives long enough, it is statistically likely that they will develop some kind of disability in their advancing years (Jaeger & Bowman, 2005). At some point in your life you could have experience a fractured bone, a minor cut, or had some type of surgery. Imagine after some minor injury that you may not even remember and then experiencing a constant pain so agonizing that no amount of pain medication can make you comfortable (Lang & Moskovitz, 2003). Some additional symptoms that you may also experience are severe burning pain, changes in bone and skin, excessive sweating, tissue swelling and extreme sensitivity to touch (Juris, 2005). These symptoms are associated with a disease that is called Reflex Sympathetic Dystrophy (RSD) but more recently termed as complex regional pain syndrome, type 1 (CRPS 1) (Juris, 2005). For simplification purposes this disease will be referred to as RSD throughout this paper.
Urinary Tract Infection, also known as UTI, occurs in two common locations, the bladder and kidneys. The kidneys are important organs that aid in filtering out waste products from blood and maintaining water distribution throughout the body. The waste products are filtered out via bladder, which is the reason of the bladder being the second site for the infection. A normal human being has two kidneys, one on left and right side, a bean shaped organ, and is located at the back of the abdomen. “Each kidney is about 11.5 cm long, 5-7.5 cm broad, 5 cm thick, and weight about 150 grams” (HealthInfoNet, Paragraph 2). Furthermore, a bacterium named Escherichia coli lives in both the kidneys and the GI tract. E. coli is part of the human body and produces
The majority of clinical cases of laminitis occur at pasture where there is an accumulation of rapidly fermentable non-structural carbohydrates (NSC) such as fructans, simple sugars or starches (Geor, 2010). Pasture-associated laminitis has major economic and welfare implications in the equine sector. Increased risk factors include insulin resistance, increased insulin secretory response, hypertriglyceridaemia and obesity (Asplin, et al., 2007;Carter, et al., 2009 and de Laat, et al., 2010). Insulin resistance has been associated with a number of problems in the horse, most notably laminitis. Insulin resistance can be defined as a physiological condition in which cells have a diminished response to normal actions of the hormone insulin. Insulin is produced but the cells become resistant and are less capable in transporting glucose from the bloodstream to muscle and other tissues. In horses, insulin resistance is associated with a number of diseases such as Equine Metabolic Syndrome (Powell, et al., 2002; Hoffman, et al., 2003;Vick, et al., 2006 and Frank, et al., 2009), Equine Cushing Disease (McGowan, et al., 2004 and Walsh, et al., 2009) and Laminitis (Treiber, et al., 2006;Bailey, et al., 2007;McGowan, 2008 and Geor, 2008). Obesity and insulin resistance in ponies has become a common problem and there is a growing awareness on the role that diet and exercise has to play (Jeffcott, et al., 1986; Frank, et al., 2006 and Vick & Adams, 2007). Over-expressed adipocytokines, such as leptin, have been suggested to impair insulin signalling and cause the up regulation of inflammatory cytokines. This then further contributes to impaired insulin signalling and endothelial dysfunction (Radin, et al., 2009). The restriction of energy throu...
There are many different symptoms of necrotizing fasciitis. They start as a regular cut, but end up being much worse. The symptoms are pain, swelling, soreness, become red or purple, sores, blisters, black spots, fever, chills, being tired, throwing up, and a lot of pain that is out of proportion for the injury. Since there are many other illnesses and diseases with these symptoms, many people wait to go to the doctor. Waiting only makes it worse.
After a thorough examination, J.P. was diagnosed with a deep vein thrombosis (DVT). “DVT develops most often in the legs but can occur also in the upper arms…” (Ignatavicius & Workman, 2013). Due t...
Rheumatoid Arthritis is when the joints are chronically inflamed, which happens because it is an autoimmune disease which means that the immune system attacks the body tissues. Although Rheumatoid Arthritis mainly affects the joints, it can also affect other organs.
This disease has many symptoms. These symptoms are similar or same to many other illnesses. That is the reason why many doctors get confused when they were researching this disease. There are three stages of symptoms for the disease. In the first stage, the Erythema Migrans, a bull’s eye rash might appear on the bitten area. In the second stage, the Disseminated Lyme Disease, you may experience a fever, sore throat, fatigue, headache, stiff neck, muscle ache, and general malaise. In the third stage, the Chronic Lyme Disease, you may experience aching joints.
Life is full of surprises. One of my favorite quotes comes from the movie Forest Gump and it states, “Life is like a box of chocolate, you never know what you are going to get.” With that being said, we can apply this quote to many medical issues. Some can be explained and others cannot. This paper will discuss the intriguing and interesting components of Raynaud’s Phenomenon.
It is prescribed after many types of injury, illness, or disease, including amputations, arthritis, cancer, cardiac disease, neurological problems, orthopedic injuries, spinal cord injuries, stroke, and traumatic brain injuries. The Institute of Medicine has estimated that as many as 14% of all Americans may be disabled at any given time. (n.d.)
One of the most common mysteries in the world is the development of autoimmune diseases. An autoimmune disease is when the immune system, which usually keeps your body healthy thinks that your healthy cells are antigens and attacks them. This is irony right? It is against properties of evolution for an immune system to attack itself causing sickness and possibly death if untreated. There are about 80 different types of autoimmune diseases, which usually have periods of little to no symptoms and worsening symptoms. What particularly creates confusion in the world is the autoimmune disease, inflammatory bowel disease, which affects almost about five million people worldwide.