Gene/Protein Disease Symptom Drug Enzyme Compound
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Query: UMLS:C0042963 (vomiting)
 31,883 document(s) hit in 31,850,051 MEDLINE articles (0.00 seconds)

A 37-year-old woman presented with increasing abdominal pain and jaundice. Six weeks before admission, she developed persistent diarrhea and jaundice of the skin. She also bruised easily, and her gums bled. In the subsequent weeks, her appetite decreased, she was fatigued, and she had nausea, vomiting, and abdominal distension. She had a history of drinking 1 quart of vodka every day for 20 years, with brief periods of abstinence; she stopped consuming alcohol 11 days before admission because it no longer provided symptomatic relief. Her past medical history was also notable for depression, including a suicide attempt 4 years earlier. She did not smoke, use illicit drugs, or have unprotected sexual intercourse. She had received no blood transfusions and had not traveled recently. She took no medications, except for occasional ibuprofen. On physical examination, she was thin and deeply jaundiced, and she trembled and responded slowly to questions. She was afebrile but tachypneic, and she had orthostatic hypotension. Her HEENT examination was notable for scleral and sublingual icterus, as well as crusted blood on her gums and teeth. The jugular veins were flat. The cardiac examination revealed tachycardia (heart rate, 103 beats per minute) without murmurs, rubs, or gallops. The abdomen was nontender and protuberant, with hypoactive bowel sounds; the spleen was not palpable, and there was no fluid wave or caput medusae. The liver percussed to 18 cm, with a smooth edge extending 10 cm below the costal margin. She had cutaneous telangiectases on her chest and bilateral palmar erythema. There was no peripheral edema. The neurologic examination was notable for asterixis. Her stool was guaiac positive. Laboratory studies revealed the following values: hematocrit, 21.2%; white blood cells, 17,310/mm(3); ammonia, 42 micromol/L; serum creatinine, 3.9 mg/dL; serum urea nitrogen, 70 mg/dL; albumin, 2.1 g/dL; total bilirubin, 26.8 mg/dL; alanine aminotransferase, 14 U/L; aspartate aminotransferase, 77 U/L; alkaline phosphatase, 138 U/L; prothrombin time, 103 seconds (international normalized ratio, 10.6); and urinary sodium, <5 mg/dL. Urinalysis revealed an elevated specific gravity and numerous muddy granular casts. Hepatitis A, B, and C serologies were negative. On abdominal ultrasound examination, there was no ascites, and the liver was echogenic. The portal and hepatic veins were patent, and the hepatic arteries were normal. The spleen measured 14 cm. What is the diagnosis?
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PMID:Cases from the Osler Medical Service at Johns Hopkins University. 1258 38

Viral hepatitides are common diseases of modern man in both industrialized and developing countries, with a varying prevalence of particular types and mode of transmission. In current medicine, viral hepatitides are classified in the A-E nomenclature, differentiating viruses that can be etiologically defined with certainty on the basis of serum markers and hepatitides exhibiting all clinical and laboratory characteristics of viral hepatitis but of as yet nondemonstrable causative agents, classified in the non-A, non-E hepatitis group. Two issues are of high relevance in the pathogenesis of viral hepatitides: route of transmission (fecal-oral or parenteral) and basic mechanism of hepatocyte lesion. Although all hepatitis viruses replicate within the hepatocyte, the exact mechanism of hepatocyte necrosis has not yet been fully elucidated, i.e. direct cytotoxicity or hepatoprogressive immune response mediated primarily by the specific cytotoxic CD8 lymphocytes. Depending on the site of entry, the virus replicates in the adjacent lymphatic tissue for some time, followed by primary viremia, virus replication in the lymphoreticular organs (lymph nodes, liver, spleen), and eventual entry in the target cells--hepatocytes, accompanied by a varying grade of necrosis and inflammatory reaction. The clinical and laboratory signs of the disease correspond to the degree of liver necrosis and are not specific for particular types of viral hepatitis. The most frequent symptoms common to all types of viral hepatitis of moderate severity include elevated body temperature persisting for days, fatigue, gradual loss of appetite, nausea, dull pain and discomfort on DRL, vomiting, multiple loose stools, dark urine, jaundice of the skin and mucosa, and light stools. Generally, the ultimate outcome of the disease is elimination of the virus and complete recovery, however, a fulminant course with lethal outcome or transition to chronic disease may also occur, making viral hepatitides a major public health problem worldwide. In classical infectology, four clinical stages of the disease have been described: incubation or preclinical stage characterized by intensive virus replication; prodromal or preicteric stage with pronounced general symptoms of infection; icteric stage; and stage of recovery. The stages may show great interindividual variation in length and severity. The development of molecular technologies over the last decade has greatly contributed to better understanding of the pathogenesis of viral hepatitides and allowed for appropriate monitoring of the effect of antiviral therapy. However, major disadvantage of these tests is their high cost. The basic clinical characteristics of and diagnostic options for particular types of viral hepatitis are described, with special reference to the latest important concepts on the disease pathogenesis.
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PMID:[Clinical aspects and diagnosis of viral hepatitis]. 1458 62