Scurvy Symptoms, Diagnosis and Treatment

Vitamin C deficiency leads to Scurvy. Vitamin C (chemically known as ascorbic acid) is essential vital for the synthesis of collagen. This leads to the formation of spongy gums, pale skin with spots on the skin, and internal bleeding of mucous membranes.

The spots are more persistent on the thighs. The patient is usually dull, appears pale with sunken eyes and is immobilized partially.


Scurvy causes:

Insufficiency in the intake of vitamin C results in scurvy primarily.  Historically, scurvy usually occured during long sea voyages where sailors won't be able to consume nutritious food that is rich in vitamin C.

Signs and symptoms of scurvy:

Scurvy signs include:

A feel of extreme fatigue and tiredness.

A number of ailments within the body. 

A feeling of discomfort and pain present in the muscles and joints of the body.

The healing time for cuts is more.

Loss of teeth, bleeding of gums.


In extreme cases, the scurvy signs are more painful and aggressive that bleeding occurs in the body's muscles and joints.

 Affects normal growth in children.


Diagnosis of Scurvy:


A physical exam is conducted to find the symptoms. Vitamin C levels are found by using lab tests that analyzes the level of serum ascorbic acid.


The wrong-diagnosis of scurvy leads to vitamin B12 deficiency, so radiological processes are practiced for diagnosing scurvy. This helps in observing the damage that has already been caused by scurvy. As scurvy gets severe, a region of rarefaction occurs at the metaphysis just beneath the white line.


The region of rarefaction generally involves those areas of white line that results in a defect in a triangle shape. This area having multiple microscopic fractures within may collapse along with the impact of the calcified cartilage over the mataphysis shaft. Visualization of the subperiosteal hemorrhages are not possible during the active period. While healing, hemorrhages get calcified and are set to be found readily.


Scurvy treatment:
Orange juice, the standard treatment before the discovery of vitamin C is an effective dietary recommendation for treating infantile scurvy.

Vitamin C when administered via oral or the parenteral method is effective in treating infantile     scurvy.

The medicinal recovery is impressive while implementing pharmacologic treatment. The appetite of the newborn is recovered in a day or two’s time. The symptoms of fever, irritability, tenderness upon palpation, and hemorrhage usually takes seven days or less to cure.

Diet recommendations:

Adequate vitamin C intake can prevent the development of scurvy. The diet requiring vitamin C varies with the age of the person.

Food and Nutrition Board of the National Academy of Sciences and National   Research Council recommends the following diet rich in vitamin C:

• Babies are to be provided with thirty to forty mg 
• Children and adults require forty five to sixty five milligram 
• Pregnant women essentially need seventy milligram 
• Lactating mothers might require at least ninety to ninety five mg

Fruits and vegetables that are abundant in vitamin C include the following:

• Berries
• Cantaloupe 
• Citrus fruits such as lemon and orange
• Broccoli 
• Potatoes
• Cauliflower 
• Spinach
• Cabbage

Tetanus Causes, Signs and Treatment

Tetanus, a curable medical condition called popularly as lockjaw, arises due to extended skeletal muscle contraction. The contamination of wound remains the root cause of infection as it is associated with rust. The rusty rough surface of the metal provides  a perfect habitat for the C. tetani bacteria. When the rusty metal containing the anaerobic C. tetani bacteria pierces the skin, the C. tetani endospore is injected into the the skin.


The endaspore is a temporary non reproductive structure formed by the bacteria which metabolises and infects in its required environment.


Tetanus Symptoms:

The lockjaw symptoms arise mostly at the skeleton muscle of striated type.

The most common sign of the lockjaw disorder is the inability of the patients to move their lower jaw which also is the reason for the origin of name 'lockjaw'.

The incubation period for tetanus varies from nine days to a months time. Shorter incubation period corresponds to severe lockjaw symptoms.

Prevention of lockjaw:

Strangely, prevention measres does not provide immunity to the lockjaw disease because even a lethal dose of tetanus toxin is unable to provoke an immune response.


In children under seven years of age, the tetanus vaccine is usually a combined DPT/DTaP vaccine, including vaccines against pertussis and diphtheria.


For those above the age of seven, the Td vaccine which represents Tetanus and diphtheria vaccine or the Tdap vaccine that represents Tetanus Diphtheria and Acellular Pertussis vaccine is commonly used.


A vaccination with tetanus toxoid could also possibly prevents tetanus. It is recommended that adults receive a booster vaccine every ten years and a standard care is practiced to give these booster vaccines to any patient suffering from a puncture wound or to those who is uncertain of when they were vaccinated previously.


The booster takes up to two weeks for the lockjaw antibodies to be formed which makes it hard to prevent a present and fatal case of tetanus.


Injecting a post exposure tetanus prophylaxis immediately after injury that is more prone to cause tetanus is another way of preventing tetanus. The shots of tetanus prophylaxis have to be given depends upon following factors:
  
The number of years since the infected person has had his last booster
 

The total number of vaccinations against tetanus that the patient has received and the nature of the injury.


Tetanus treatment:

The treatment for lockjaw primarily involves cleaning of the wound.

Surgical debridement is practiced to remove the dead and the infected tissues.
 

Coordination of antibiotic metronidazole reduces the number of bacteria. Once Penicillin was used to treat tetanus, as it involves a risk in increase of spasms. Its recommented to use only at the times of unavaiability of metronidazole.

Restriction     of toxin production nullifies its effects and controls muscle spasms. Robaxin-750 generically called as methacarbamol is a good skeletal muscle relaxant.

It is of high importance for a passive immunization with the tetanus     immunoglobulin or the human anti-tetanospasmin immunoglobulin. Normal human immunoglobein is given in case of unavailability of the required anti-tetanospasmin immunoglobulin.


It is compulsory for all the tetanus victims to be vaccinated against the disease.