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Query: UMLS:C0036474 (scurvy)
 685 document(s) hit in 31,850,051 MEDLINE articles (0.00 seconds)

With a normal and varied food intake, the vitamin supply is often sufficient to avoid vitamin deficiency. Since synthetic vitamins have become available, it has become possible to take with one dose the amount of vitamins normally taken up from food in one year. In these pharmacological doses vitamins must therefore be considered as drugs. And in pharmacological doses, their actions are often different and not directly linked to their physiological activity. Two types of pathologic state are unquestionably the concern of vitaminotherapy: More or less specific and intense vitamin deficiencies: Rickets, scurvy, beri beri, pellagra, vitamin deficiency related to alcohol consumption, polyneuritis, encephalopathy, malabsorption, mucoviscidosis, etc. Genetic defects of vitamin metabolism: Prescriptions for these cases represent only a tiny part of the vitamin pharmaceutic market. The prescription of vitamins as adjuvants in other pathologic states without vitamin deficiency, such as neurological pains, psychosis, prevention of common cold, alopecia, anemia, asthenia, carpal tunnel defect, etc., is frequent. The results may be good; however, in some cases, the efficacy is due to chance or placebo effect, and there is no scientific or experimental evidence of beneficial activity. At the moment, the pharmacological vitamin research is very active. New products with vitamin-like structures are being synthesized for specialized therapeutic applications. They will in the near future probably replace elevated and mega-doses for clinical prescription, except, of course, for the treatment of vitamin deficiency. On the other hand, the use of multivitamin preparations in nutritional dosage will greatly increase.
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PMID:Clinical conditions requiring elevated dosages of vitamins. 250 93

Scurvy occurs in individuals who eat inadequate amounts of fresh fruit or vegetables, often because of dietary imbalances related to advanced age or homelessness. Asthenia, vascular purpura, bleeding, and gum abnormalities are the main symptoms. In 80% of cases, the manifestations of scurvy include musculoskeletal symptoms consisting of arthralgia, myalgia, hemarthrosis, and muscular hematomas. Vitamin C depletion is responsible for structural collagen alterations, defective osteoid matrix formation, and increased bone resorption. Imaging studies may show osteolysis, joint space loss, osteonecrosis, osteopenia, and/or periosteal proliferation. Trabecular and cortical osteoporosis is common. Children experience severe lower limb pain related to subperiosteal bleeding. Laboratory tests show nonspecific abnormalities including anemia and low levels of cholesterol and albumin. The finding of a serum ascorbic acid level lower than 2.5 mg/l confirms the diagnosis. Vitamin C supplementation ensures prompt resolution of the symptoms.
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PMID:Musculoskeletal manifestations of scurvy. 1579 91

Scurvy is a set of clinical manifestations characterized by general weakness, anemia, gingivitis and cutaneous bleeding, caused by a lack of ascorbic acid in the diet. This pathology is currently a clinical rarity, although it can still be seen in cases of malnutrition associated with alcoholism or with dietary deficiencies, especially in childhood and old age. We present the case of a 45-year-old male who consulted his physician because of lower limb edema with follicular purpura, accompanied by asthenia, polyarthralgia and bleeding gums. After treatment with 1 g/day of vitamin C was initiated, the patient's symptoms quickly improved. The diagnosis of scurvy was based on the patient's clinical symptoms, dietary history and the rapid resolution of the symptoms when vitamin C supplements were initiated.
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PMID:[Scurvy: follicular purpura as a diagnostic sign]. 1647 64

Scurvy is a dietary disease due to Vitamin C deficiency. Vitamin C is related to collagen synthesis and metabolism. Malnutrition, problems in bowel absorption, alcoholism and cerebral palsy are clearly often linked with scurvy, even it is no more common in the industrialized countries. Its clinical features are: asthenia, weight loss, appetite decrease, irritability, gingival or mucous lesions, porpora, follicular hyperkeratosis, musculoskeletal pain due to multiple fractures and subperiosteal bleedings, pseudoparalisis (frog-like position of legs) and refuse to walk. Authors report on a nine year-old girl with spastic quadriplegic cerebral palsy, who at the first examination showed deep anemia, fever and multiple epiphyseal separation of the right shoulder and the left knee. Diagnosis of scurvy was been made. The aim of this article was to underline the rarity and gravity of this disease, and its even more frequent appearance in children affected of cerebral palsy. Substitutive therapy consists on ascorbic acid supplementation. Complete restitutio ad integrum of skin-mucous injuries, such as gingival bleedings, was achieved within three months.
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PMID:[Multiple epiphyseal separations in a child with cerebral palsy and scurvy]. 1975 53