Adaptive Response: Pathophysiology of Disease Paper Example

Introduction

Understanding what body responses are normal and abnormal in the event of a pathogen invasion, injury or disease process is essential for advanced practices nurses to differentiate and treat patient symptoms. Adaptive responses are how the body defense mechanisms physically react to illness or injury References (Huether, & McCance, 2017). This paper aims to discuss the pathophysiology, adaptive responses, and alterations of the disease processes and provide a mind map of a disease process explained.

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Tonsillitis

In the first scenario, the patient who a two years old female is named Jennifer has presented symptoms that are common from patients with tonsillitis. In the situation of the child's fever, four+ tonsils, diffuse exudates, and palpable tender lymph nodes are clinical presentations of tonsillitis (PubMed Health, n.d.). The anterior cervical nodes were palpable and tender to the touch. This is the symptoms that are presented by the body as it responds to tonsillitis (Huether & McCance, 2017). Ideally, this is a common infection among children that are her age.

The symptoms also demonstration the actions of an inflammatory response secondary to the infectious or viral agent. This rapid immune response occurs in humoral and cellular systems and is designed to limit the damage, and begin the process of healing. Immune responses caused vasodilation and increased vascular permeability near sites of injured tissues, causing exudation, swelling, erythema, and warmth as a result of activation and interactions of the chemical can trigger cellular reactions in the blood and lymph system (Huether, & McCance, 2017). The pathophysiology presented by the patient in this scenario is familiar to patients her age that have a viral or bacterial infection on the mucus membrane that leads to the body to present inflammation of the tonsils as a response.

As mentioned in the scenario, the most common signs and symptoms include difficulty swallowing, tender lymph nodes, sore throat and the tonsils will always show signs of being swollen. Relative to the fact that, the infection can be caused by either bacteria or virus and thus a correct diagnosis is crucial to help with the treatment plan. The wrong diagnosis can cause the disease to spread and infect other neighboring cells. Surgery, which was once a common practice to remove tonsillitis, is used to help with bacteria attack the tonsils, and they do not respond to any treatment plan and at the same time cause infection to other areas and complications. Given that the patient has presented signs of Erythematous tonsils, this is an indication that the disease is bacteria and most common bacteria that affects children at the age are the staphylococci and streptococci. The difficulty the patient experienced swallowing was because of the swollen lymph nodes, which also explains the pain from the swollen tissue.

Skin Reaction to a Chemical Irritant - Contact Dermatitis

The scenario with the man showing redness and irritation on his hands from probable exposure to chemical irritants, contact dermatitis is likely the cause of his symptoms. Allergic contact with various kinds of jewelry that are made from gold or nickel, rubber gloves, cosmetics such as perfumes is some of the causes. The resultant allergic reaction causes the body to discharge inflammatory chemicals that in turn results to itchiness and irritation on the skin. Manifestations of contact dermatitis include rashes with well-defined borders, with possible scaling and vesicles at contact site(s) (Huether, & McCance, 2017). Contact dermatitis is a type of delayed hypersensitivity reaction after multiple exposures to an allergen. In this kind of response, the first contact is considered primary, and the body manufactures reactive T cells in response to the disclosure, without visible signs and symptoms. Then the contact dermatitis rash develops after the second or multiple exposures, causing the immune response to activate a type IV cell-mediated reaction. The adaptive response happens after repeated exposure and hastens, or environmental antigens become immunogenic after binding to carrier proteins, such as the skin (Huether, & McCance, 2017). Contact dermatitis treatment often not causes for concern because, in most instances, it fades away on their own if the substance is no longer getting in contact with the skin. Common tips that can use at home is to avoid further scratching of the irritated skin as scratching can result in worse and result in skin infection. Any irritants are easily removed by cleaning the irritating area with clean lukewarm water and soap. However, one should seek medical attention if the irritation is near the eyes or the mouth or it covers a significant portion of the body skin.

Stress Response - Elevated Cortisol Levels

The symptoms Martha is experiencing, trouble sleeping, anorexia, palpitations can be related to elevated cortisol levels. The body responds to stress by secreting cortisol to enhance the immune response (Huether, & McCance, 2017). Acutely, cortisol inhibits initial inflammatory effects, promotes resolution and repair, by preparing the body for fight or flight. However, prolonged exposure to cortisol causes abnormal immune responses, such as depleting protein stores and can create a variety of disease processes including lipid abnormalities, hypertension, atherosclerosis, diabetes, osteoporosis, anxiety, depression, sleep disturbances and eating disorders (Huether, & McCance, 2017).

In Summary

Clinical manifestations of disease processes can lead an advanced practice nurse to begin to create the differential diagnosis of different pathologies of immune reactions their adaptive responses and associated alterations caused by a disease processes. Studying immune responses allows the advanced practitioner to think, accurately diagnosis and treat individuals critically.

References

Huether, S. E., & McCance, K. L. (2017). Understanding pathophysiology (6th ed.). St. Louis, MO: Mosby.

Hammer, G. G., & McPhee, S. (2014). Pathophysiology of disease: An introduction to clinical medicine. (7th ed.) New York, NY: McGraw-Hill Education.

PubMedHealth. (n.d.) Tonsillitis. Retrieved from https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmedhealth/PMHT0025779/