Gene/Protein Disease Symptom Drug Enzyme Compound
Pivot Concepts:   Target Concepts:
Query: UMLS:C0018133 (graft-versus-host disease)
 18,032 document(s) hit in 31,850,051 MEDLINE articles (0.00 seconds)

With a prevalence of approximatively 50%, diarrhoea is a frequent event in immune deficiency of any cause. Because this condition is permanent in AIDS, the main characteristic of diarrhoea is chronicity. Non infectious causes are more common in conditions other than AIDS with, for exemple, intestinal injuries related to graft versus host disease or to chemotherapy toxicity. Among infectious causes, enteric parasitic diseases such as cryptosporidiosis or microsporidiosis are more commonly observed in the immunodeficiency related to HIV while viral infections due to cytomegalovirus or adenovirus seem possible in any case of severe troubles of the immunity. Gram-negative infections and Clostridium difficile colitis have to be diagnosed because efficient treatment is available. In these patients usually in bad general condition, because diarrhoea is often of unknown aetiology or non curable, the diagnostic and therapeutic strategy has to be pragmatic in order to control the symptoms without an excess of invasive procedures.
 ...
PMID:[Diarrhea in immune deficiency status]. 874 35

A probiotic is a "live microbial food ingredients that, when ingested in sufficient quantities, exerts health benefits on the consumer". Probiotics exert their benefits through several mechanisms; they prevent colonization, cellular adhesion and invasion by pathogenic organisms, they have direct antimicrobial activity and they modulate the host immune response. The strongest evidence for the clinical effectiveness of probiotics has been in their use for the prevention of symptoms of lactose intolerance, treatment of acute diarrhea, attenuation of antibiotic-associated gastrointestinal side effects and the prevention and treatment of allergy manifestations. More research needs to be carried out to clarify conflicting findings on the use of probiotics for prevention of travelers' diarrhea, infections in children in daycare and dental caries, and elimination of nasal colonization with potentially pathogenic bacteria. Promising ongoing research is being conducted on the use of probiotics for the treatment of Clostridium difficile colitis, treatment of Helicobacter pylori infection, treatment of inflammatory bowel disease and prevention of relapse, treatment of irritable bowel syndrome, treatment of intestinal inflammation in cystic fibrosis patients, and prevention of necrotizing enterocolitis in premature infants. Finally, areas of future research include the use of probiotics for the treatment of rheumatoid arthritis, prevention of cancer and the treatment of graft-versus-host disease in bone marrow transplant recipients.
 ...
PMID:Probiotics: their role in the treatment and prevention of disease. 1659 7

Clostridium difficile infection (CDI) is a severe and potentially deadly infectious colitis whose incidence is dramatically increasing in the last decades, with more virulent strains. CDI should be suspected in case of unexplained diarrhea and abdominal pain in patients with a recent history of antibiotic use and healthcare exposures; diagnosis is based on a combination of clinical and laboratory findings with demonstration of C. difficile toxins by stool test. The advantages of contrast-enhanced computed tomography (CECT) are the noninvasiveness and the ability to evaluate both the colonic wall and the adjacent soft tissues. Considerable overlap exists between the CECT findings of CDI and those of colitis of other origins, such as typhlitis, ischemic colitis, graft-versus-host disease, radiation colitis and inflammatory bowel diseases; however, some features may help distinguish between these conditions. This paper provides a comprehensive overview of the imaging features of Clostridium difficile colitis and its mimics, with a view to assist the radiologist in reaching the correct diagnosis.
 ...
PMID:Clostridium difficile colitis: CT findings and differential diagnosis. 3130 48