Syphilis

Syphilis is an infectious venereal disease caused by the spirocheteTreponema pallidum. Syphilis is transmissible by sexual contact with infectious lesions, from mother to fetus in utero, via blood product transfusion, and occasionally through breaks in the skin that come into contact with infectious lesions. If untreated, it progresses through 4 stages: primary, secondary, latent, and tertiary.

Rheumatoid Arthritis

Rheumatoid arthritis (RA) is a chronic systemic inflammatory disease of unknown cause. The hallmark feature of this condition is persistent symmetric polyarthritis (synovitis) that affects the hands and feet, although any joint lined by a synovial membrane may be involved. Extra-articular involvement of organs such as the skin, heart, lungs, and eyes can be significant.

Juvenile Rheumatoid Arthritis

Juvenile rheumatoid arthritis (JRA) is the most common rheumatological disease in children and is one of the most common chronic diseases of childhood. It represents a group of disorders that all share the clinical manifestation of chronic joint inflammation. The etiology is largely unknown, and the genetic component is complex, making clear distinctions between the various subtypes difficult. As a result, various classification criteria are recognized, with different benefits and limitations. A new nomenclature, juvenile idiopathic arthritis (JIA), is increasingly used and is replacing the term juvenile rheumatoid arthritis.

The American College of Rheumatology classifies juvenile rheumatoid arthritis into 3 distinct subtypes: pauciarticular juvenile rheumatoid arthritis, polyarticular juvenile rheumatoid arthritis, and systemic JRA. Other childhood arthritis such as juvenile ankylosing spondylitis and psoriatic arthritis are classified under spondyloarthropathies.

In 1997, the International League of Associations for Rheumatology (ILAR) conducted a consensus conference during which they proposed the nomenclature juvenile idiopathic arthritis. The classification criteria include psoriatic arthritis and enthesitis-related arthritis, which encompasses juvenile ankylosing spondylitis, arthritis associated with inflammatory bowel disease,reactive arthritis, and spondyloarthropathies. This has resulted in some confusion in the literature; when reviewing existing literature, consider whether authors are referring to the juvenile rheumatoid arthritis or juvenile idiopathic arthritis nomenclature because this affects the population being discussed and thus the generalizability of the results.

This article focuses on oligoarticular juvenile idiopathic arthritis (pauciarticular juvenile rheumatoid arthritis), polyarticular juvenile idiopathic arthritis, both rheumatoid factor positive and negative (polyarticular JRA), and systemic juvenile idiopathic arthritis (systemic JRA).

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Acute Rheumatic Fever

The incidence of acute rheumatic fever (ARF) has declined in most developed countries, and many physicians have little or no practical experience with the diagnosis and management of this condition. Occasional outbreaks in the United States make complacency a threat to public health.

Diagnosis rests on a combination of clinical manifestations that can develop in relation to group A streptococcal pharyngitis. These include chorea, carditis, subcutaneous nodules, erythema marginatum, and migratory polyarthritis. Because the inciting infection is completely treatable, attention has been refocused on prevention.

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Color Blindness

As I was processing my medical exam as a requirement for my non-professional driver's license, I was shown plates of dots with different colors and was asked of the number shown within the circle. At first I promptly answered the doctor with the number I see but as he switched to the next plate, I wondered why he's asking for a number but I can't see any. It's the same for the next plates up to the last. This plates, as  I learned later, were color plates in Ishihara Test used in diagnosing color blindness. It was then that I was officially diagnosed as a Color Blind person. 

After I went home, I got curious about color blindness and here's what I've learned.
 
Color Blindness
Color blindness is the inability to see certain colors in the usual way.

Peptic Ulcer Disease

Peptic ulcer disease (PUD) is a common disorder that affects millions of individuals in the United States each year. PUD has a major impact on our health care system by accounting for roughly 10% of medical costs for digestive diseases. In the last two decades, major advances have been made in the understanding of the pathophysiology of PUD, particularly regarding the role of Helicobacter pylori infection and nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs). This has led to important changes in diagnostic and treatment strategies, with the potential for improving the clinical outcome and for decreasing health care costs.

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Pediatric Febrile Seizures

Febrile seizures are the most common type of seizures observed in the pediatric age group.

Although described by the ancient Greeks, it was not until this century that febrile seizures were recognized as a distinct syndrome separate from epilepsy. In 1980, a consensus conference held by the National Institutes of Health described a febrile seizure as, "An event in infancy or childhood usually occurring between three months and five years of age, associated with fever, but without evidence of intracranial infection or defined cause." It does not exclude children with prior neurological impairment and neither provides specific temperature criteria nor defines a "seizure." Another definition from the International League Against Epilepsy (ILAE) is "a seizure occurring in childhood after 1 month of age associated with a febrile illness not caused by an infection of the central nervous system (CNS), without previous neonatal seizures or a previous unprovoked seizure, and not meeting the criteria for other acute symptomatic seizures".

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