Coats Disease

A disease that is not common or hereditary and we are not sure what causes it is Coats disease. Other names for this disease are exudative retinitis and retinal telangiectasis. With this disease the blood vessels do not develope correctly behind the retina. With the research that has been done they do think that this disease has something to do with genetics and that people ar emost likely to have the disease when they are born.

This disease happens to males in the first 10 years of their lives. It mostly occurs in only one eye and happens gradually. They start to first loose site and then their retina can actually come unattached. Where normally the blood vessels do not leak, with this disease they do leak and then that slowly starts to destroy the retina. When the vessls are leaking they will leave cholestral depostits and that is what will, over time, detach the retina.

You know when you take a picture of someone and their eyes are red in the picture? With this disease, the kids eye will be yellow instead of red in a picture. I never knew that the redness is due to seeing the reflection of the blood vessels behing a persons eye.

If the disease is caught early and the bad blood vessels are not yet around the optic nerve then laser surgery or a surgery where they go and freeze the bad blood vessel (cryotherapy) can be preformed. This disease is not always go the same for everyone. Sometimes it may get better on its own or maybe just stop at a stage. If there is the total retinal detachment then they will most likely be blind and may even have to have thier eye take out.

Information found on

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coats_disease

Images found on

http://budcare.org/zimages/Eyesection.gif

http://www.coatsdisease.org/index.html

http://images.google.com/imgres?imgurl=http://fitsweb.uchc.edu/student/selectives/mMeyer/retino9.jpg&imgrefurl=http://fitsweb.uchc.edu/student/selectives/mMeyer/retinoblastoma.htm&h=220&w=350&sz=15&hl=en&start=3&um=1&tbnid=iZ2a81r1JDBsqM:&tbnh=75&tbnw=120&prev=/images%3Fq%3Dcoats%2Bdisease%2Bmri%26um%3D1%26hl%3Den%26sa%3DG

Hypoituitarism

There are many differen tumors that can affect the Pituitary gland. The pituitary gland secretes many hormones. With Hypoituitarism, the pituitary is not producing the correct amount of hormones if any. These hormones control many functions on the body such as growth. Hypoituitarism usually occurs gradually and causes weakness, fatige, headaches, and many other problems depending on what hormone is being affected. The most common reason for this is due to a tumor on the pituitary gland. This tumor can grow and start affecting other parts of the brain like pressing on the optic nerve and causing vision loss. Other causes for Hypoituitarism can be due to a head injury or a stroke. Treatment of the tumor is usually fixed by surgery and removing the tumor. Sometimes radiation treatment is used. Another treatment that is used even after surgery is hormone replacements. There are prescriptions that doctors can prescribe that will give the person normal amounts of hormone that they are missing. Hypoituitarism is usually curable if caught early. Since this usually takes awhile to be diagnosed it can cause problems that may not be able to be fixed.

Information found on:

http://healthabcpedia.net/hypopituitarism/329441.html

http://www.omni-guide.com/img/PituitaryTumor.jpg

http://depts.washington.edu/neurosur/ptcare/images/silbergeld/pit/4.jpg

Ramsay Hunt Syndrome

Of the many pathologies that take place in the temporal area, the one that I have researched is called Ramsay Hunt Syndrome. It is due to the infection of the facial nerve VII.

This nerve runs through the ear which is in the temporal region. The infection is caused by the virus, varicella-zoster. This is the same virus that causes chicken pox and is the reason most of us have it in our bodies. If the virus is not completely destroyed by our immune systems then it will remain in our body and some day may reoccur and inflame the facial nerve VII.









The symptoms are: a red rash that is very painful, blisters that can occur throughout your ear and in your mouth, facial weakness, and problems with your ear such as hearing loss. This usually occurs in adults over the age of 40 and is very rare is kids. The chance of death is very low and most the time no permanent damage occurs, if taken care of early. Doctors treat this by giving the patient medication to help with pain and the virus. The person infected needs to keep clean and take care of the blisters. Other than that there is not much for the person to do. They do need to stay away from people who have never had chicken pox along with babies and pregnant women.




I never knew the virus would stay in your body and something like this could occur. I am glad to know that it is rare, there is a treatment, and most people are fine.



Cites that were used to get information of Ramsay Hunt Syndrome:

Picture one and information
http://www.mayoclinic.com/health/ramsay-hunt-syndrome/DS00878/DSECTION=2

MRI picture
http://home.flash.net/~drrad/tf/052796a.jpg