Tag Archives: Associated Disorders

What Is Schizophrenia? Schizophrenia is a thought disorder characterized by psychotic symptoms and inappropriate and bizarre behavior. Schizophrenia involves dysfunction in any of these areas: Cognition which are thinking skills that include intellect, language, mathematical ability, memory, perception, reasoning, judgment, ...

What Is Food Allergy? Food allergy is an abnormal immune response to food proteins that may damage the small intestinal  lining and produce malabsorption of food. The reaction is usually delayed which makes it difficult to identify the offending food that ...

What Is Progressive Multifocal Leukoencephalopathy? Progressive multifocal leukoencephalopathy is a progressive demyelinating disorder of the central nervous system (brain) caused by JC virus that leads to rapid death. Progressive multifocal leukoencephalopathy usually occurs as an opportunistic infection in patients with ...

What Is Progressive Myoclonic Ataxia? Progressive myoclonic ataxia is a movement disorder characterized by defective muscular coordination of a muscle group with its origin in the brain. The pathology is in the cerebellum.1 Myoclonus in a context of progressive ataxia ...

What Is Angina Pectoris? Angina pectoris, or simply angina, is a coronary syndrome characterized by an oppressive substernal pain (pain under breastbone) or pressure brought on by exertion and relieved by rest that results from failure of coronary arteries to ...

What Are Autoimmune Polyglandular Syndromes? Autoimmune polyglandular syndromes (APS) are rare clusterings of two or more endocrine and non-endocrine autoimmune disorders in the same affected person. Polyglandular is somewhat of a misnomer since many of the manifestations of the diseases ...

What Is Antiphospholipid Syndrome? Antiphospholipid syndrome (APS) is an autoimmune disease and a blood clotting disorder characterized by these clinical and laboratory criteria: Clinical criteria – recurrent vascular thrombosis (clots in veins/arteries) from hypercoagulability (abnormal excessive clotting) and/or recurrent complications of ...

What Is Plummer-Vinson Syndrome Affecting the Esophagus? Plummer-Vinson syndrome is a manifestation of severe, long-term, iron deficiency anemia that is characterized by post-cricoid esophageal webs and dysphagia. Q: What are esophageal webs? A: Esophageal webs are one or more thin ...

What Is Enteropathic Arthritis? Enteropathic arthritis is a form of inflammatory arthritis characterized by peripheral joint disease that also involves the attachments sites for tendons at joints, called entheses, and is characterized by joint stiffness, swelling and loss of motion. Q: ...

What Is Coronary Artery Disease (CAD)? Coronary artery disease (CAD), also called ischemic heart disease, is a gradual narrowing of medium and large arteries of the heart by fatty buildups, called atherosclerotic plaques. It is characterized by slowly developing interference with blood flow to heart ...

What Is Non-Infectious Blepharitis? Non-infectious blepharitis is an inflammatory condition of the eyelids that is NOT caused by an invading organism but rather nutritional deficiencies. It is characterized by non-ulcerative inflammation of the hair follicles and lacrimal glands along the eyelid edges. Q: ...

What Is Juvenile Type 1 Diabetes Mellitus? Juvenile diabetes is type I diabetes mellitus that begins in childhood or before the age of 25 years. It is an inherited inflammatory autoimmune disease of the pancreas in which anti-islet autoantibodies destroy the ...

What Is Glycogenic Acanthosis? Glycogenic acanthosis is a benign thickening of the esophageal squamous epithelium (surface cell lining)  characterized by the presence of numerous, uniformly grey-white plaques made up of large squamous cells filled with glycogen. The wax-like plaques in ...

What Is Cystic Fibrosis? Cystic fibrosis is a genetic disease of the exocrine glands which causes the body to produce abnormally thick and sticky mucus and results in progressive damage to the respiratory system and digestive problems. Severity of disease depends ...

What Are Congenital Anomalies? Congenital anomalies are malformations present in the infant at birth. Q: What anomalies are present at birth? A: Some anomalies are inherited while others are caused by a harmful environmental factor during pregnancy such as diet, ...