A disease is a condition of the body in which normal life activity and the ability to maintain self-regulation are violated, life expectancy is reduced, which is caused by the limitation of functional and energy capabilities in their opposition to pathogenic reasons.
The nomenclature of diseases includes a wide list of names of existing nosological forms that are used in medicine to uniformly denote pathological conditions. Until today, this list of diseases has not been completed.
The specificity of any infectious disease lies in its cyclical nature. The following successive periods of the disease are distinguished: incubation, initial, the height of the disease and recovery. Each of them has its own characteristics.
Latent stage of the disease
This stage is also called incubation. This is a period of latent development that does not manifest itself clinically: from the moment when the pathogenic agent influenced the body to the development of the first symptoms of the disease. A feature of this stage is an ever-decreasing decrease in the body's ability to prevent a pathogenic effect, adaptive mechanisms are no longer so effective. During this period, expressed symptoms are not observed, but if a person performs stress tests, individual signs may appear.
The incubation period of the disease lasts from several minutes to several months, and sometimes even years. It all depends on the body's resistance to the influence of the pathogenic agent, on how much it is able to overcome the arising violations with the help of protective devices. Only after exposure to strong poisons, almost instant poisoning occurs (no longer than a few minutes). If you set the latent period in time, this will greatly facilitate the prevention and control of the disease.
What other periods of the disease exist?
Harbinger Stage
Another name for this stage is prodromal. It is observed from the moment of the first manifestations and continues until the development of the usual clinical picture. The prodrome stage is a logical result of the insufficient effectiveness of adaptation processes, the main function of which is to normalize the body's homeostasis at a time when the causes of the disease are acting.
At this stage, the first subjective and objective nonspecific signs appear: fatigue, malaise, pain in the muscles and joints, irritability, loss of appetite, discomfort, headaches, fever, sometimes chills, etc. Consider the remaining periods of the disease.
Stage of severe illness
During the stage of pronounced manifestations, or heat, general and local symptoms characteristic of the disease appear. If it goes unfavorably, various kinds of complications can occur (for example, coma in diabetes mellitus). At the same time, at this stage of development, adaptive mechanisms still continue to operate, although it is not so effective as to stop the disease on their own.
In this acute period of the disease, the main symptoms develop, while some diseases have a more or less certain duration of the course (especially infectious), while others, especially chronic ones, do not have this property.
The following forms of disease are observed:
- acute, not lasting long (a few days - 2-3 weeks);
- recurrent;
- chronic, resulting from acute and lasting more than six weeks.
The exact dates cannot be set, since everything depends on the specifics of the pathology, the intensity and time of the exposure of the pathogen to the body, and the stamina of the person himself.
The main periods of the disease are considered. But there is still a stage of recovery or other options for the outcome of the pathology.
There are the following options for ending the disease: recovery (incomplete and complete), relapse, remission, complication, development into chronic, death.
Full recovery
It consists in the formation of effective adaptive reactions and processes that successfully eliminate the cause and / or pathogenic consequences of the disease, restoring the body's self-regulation in full. However, there is no guarantee that the body will return to its benevolent state. After recovery, qualitatively and quantitatively different vital signs appear, new functional systems are formed, the metabolism and immunobiological surveillance systems are changing, and many other adaptive changes are also developing. This is influenced by the main periods of the course of the disease.
Incomplete recovery is characteristic of the body in those cases where the residual effects of the disease and individual deviations from the norm are preserved.
Relapse
Relapse - a re-amplification or re-development of the signs of the disease after they have already been eliminated or weakened. Symptoms are similar to the symptoms of a primary disease, but in some cases they may have differences. Relapse occurs most often due to the action of the causes that caused the initial episode of malaise, a decrease in the effectiveness of adaptive mechanisms or the body's ability to resist any factors. This is characteristic of periods of infectious diseases.
Remission
Remission - this stage of the disease, which is characterized by a temporary alleviation (incomplete, then followed by relapse) or elimination (complete) of symptoms. Most often, this period occurs as a consequence or feature of the causes of the disease or is associated with changes in the reactivity of the patient's body , as well as with treatment that does not allow to recover completely.
Complication
A complication is a process that develops amid a disease, but is not necessarily characteristic of it. Most often, complications arise as a result of the indirect action of the causes of the disease or associated with the components of the process of its course (for example, with an ulcer, perforation of the walls of the intestine or stomach can occur).
Fatal outcome
If the disease develops unfavorably, it is likely to develop into a chronic, protracted one, as well as such a period of the development of the disease as the patientās death, when the body is not able to adapt to new conditions, is depleted, and further existence becomes impossible.
The direct cause of death is cardiac arrest, which can be caused by both its damage and the disruption of the centers of the brain, which are responsible for regulating the functions of the cardiovascular system. Another reason is respiratory arrest, which occurs with paralysis of the respiratory center located in the medulla oblongata caused by anemia, hemorrhage, swelling, or exposure to poisons such as cyanide, morphine, etc.
Stages
Death involves the following stages:
- preagony;
- terminal pause;
- agony;
- clinical death;
- biological death.
The first four stages, subject to timely medical interventions, may be reversible.
Agony is characterized by disturbances in the mechanisms of the central nervous system and changes in all body functions that are important for life: respiration, heart activity, lowering the temperature, and relaxation of the sphincters. Often the patient faints. This condition lasts from several hours to two to three days.
The next stage after agony is clinical death, and it is fundamentally reversible. Symptoms: cessation of breathing, blood circulation and heartbeat. This period with normothermia lasts 3-6 minutes, but can last up to 15-25 minutes with hypothermia. Its duration depends on the degree of hypoxia of the neurons located in the cerebral cortex.
With clinical death, resuscitation measures are required , which include:
- mechanical ventilation;
- restoration of blood circulation and cardiac activity, including cardiac massage, if necessary - defibrillation, the initiation of cardiopulmonary bypass using oxygenated blood;
- correction of the acid-base state and restoration of ion balance;
- improving the state of the system of self-regulation and microcirculation of the body.
After the body manages to revive, it is for some time in an unstable postresuscitative state, which includes the following stages:
- temporary regulation of the body;
- transient destabilization;
- establishment of vital functions and recovery.
Biological death is a termination of human life that is irreversible. A holistic revitalization of the body is no longer possible, but the likelihood of the resumption of the work of some organs remains. Thus, although the stages of the disease are conditional, such a classification is used quite widely.
We examined the main periods of the disease.