reticular connective tissue = a type of loose irregular connective tissue and has a network of reticular fibers (fine type III collagen) that form a soft skeleton (stroma) to support the lymphoid organs (lymph nodes, red bone marrow, thymus, and spleen.) Reticular fibers are synthesized by special fibroblasts called reticular cells. The fibers are thin branching structures. Adipose tissue is held together by reticular fibers. I wonder if these fibers have anything to do with CELLULITE? Reticular connective tissue resembles areolar connective tissue, but the only fibers in its matrix are reticular fibers, which form a delicate network along which fibroblasts called reticular cells lie scattered. Although reticular fibers are widely distributed in the body, reticular tissue is limited to certain sites. It forms a labyrinth-like stroma (literally, "bed or "mattress"), or internal framework, that can support many free blood cells (large lymphocytes) in lymph nodes, the spleen, and red bone marrow.
Brucella = an intracellular parasite of the reticuloendothelial system and forms granuloma in tissues. Undulant fever, wet hay smell to sweat, migratory arthalgia and myalgia, disease may be acute, subacute or chronic. Carried by all manner of mammals, with four species mentioned in Liz's notes: abortus (cattle, bison), melitensis (goats, sheep), suis (pigs, reindeer, caribou), canis (dogs, foxes, coyotes). Highly transmissible: very few bacteria needed and can penetrate inact skin as well as going in the normal routes. Big clue: undulant fever.
supperative infection = has pus, is foul
bleb = blister, vesicle, bubble or cyst
chancroid = aka "soft chancre" = a painful, ragged ulcer, usu. infectious, venereal, on genitalia, caused by Haemophilus ducreyi, lacks firm indurated margins, different from syphillis chancres
chancre = a small hard painless nodule at the site of entry of a pathogen, the primary lesion of syphilis, which begins at the site of cutaneous or mucosal infection after an interval of 10–30 days as a papule or area of infiltration, of dull red color, hard, and insensitive; the center usually becomes eroded or breaks down into an ulcer that heals slowly after 4–6 weeks. Finding Treponema pallidum on dark-field examination is diagnostic, except in oral ulcers, in which T. microdentium is normally present. Syn: hard ulcer, hard sore, syphilitic ulcer 1, hard chancre.
otitis media = middle ear infection
clue cells = epithelial cells of the vagina with distinctive stippled appearance from being covered with bacteria --a medical sign of bacterial vaginosis, particularly that caused by Gardnerella, Gram-negative, foul, fishy smelling vaginal discharge, increased vaginal pH.
saprobe = organism that lives in and derives its nourishment from organic matter in stagnant or foul water
saprophytic = obtaining food osmotically from dissolved organic material, feeding on dead or decaying organic matter
fulminate = to come on suddenly and intensely
fulminant = sudden & severe
trachoma = Chronic contagious microbial inflammation, with hypertrophy, of the conjunctiva, marked by the formation of minute grayish or yellowish translucent granules caused by Chlamydia trachomatis. Syn: Egyptian ophthalmia, granular lids, granular ophthalmia.
hemoptysis = coughing up blood or mucus with blood in it
granuloma = nodular inflammatory lesion, usu small or granular, firm, persistent, and containing compactly grouped modified phagocytes such as epithelioid cells, giant cells, and other macrophages. Brucella can cause granuloma formation.
calcified granuloma = a granuloma containing calcium deposits. Since it usually takes some time for calcium to be deposited in a granuloma, it is generally assumed that a calcified granuloma is an old granuloma. For example, a calcified granuloma in the lung may be due to tuberculosis contracted years earlier that is now dormant.
radiculopathy = disorder of spinal nerves or nerve roots, can be caused by a herniated intervertebral disk (nucleus pulposus) which impinges on nearby nerve structures resulting in pain and neurologic symptoms. A clinical situation where the radicular nerve (nerve root) is compressed by the prolapsed disk is referred to as a radiculopathy. This problem tends to occur most commonly in the cervical and lumbar spine.