Disease is a state of the body in which normal vital activity and the ability to maintain self-regulation are disturbed, life expectancy decreases, which is caused by a limitation of functional and energy capabilities in their opposition to pathogenic causes.
The nomenclature of diseases includes a wide list of names of existing nosological forms that are used in medicine for the uniform designation of pathological conditions. Until today, such a list of diseases has not been completed.
The specificity of any infectious disease lies in its cyclic nature. The following successive periods of the disease are distinguished: incubation, initial, peak of the disease and recovery. Each of them has its own characteristics.
Latent disease stage
This stage is also called the incubation stage. This is a period of latent development that does not manifest itself clinically: from the moment when the pathogenic agent had an impact on the body, to the development of the first symptoms of the disease. The feature of this stage isan increasing decline in the body's ability to prevent disease-causing effects, adaptive mechanisms no longer work as efficiently. During this period, there are no pronounced symptoms, but if a person performs stress tests, individual signs may appear.
The incubation period of the disease lasts from several minutes to several months, and sometimes even years. It all depends on the body's resistance to the influence of a pathogenic agent, on how much it is able to overcome the resulting violations with the help of protective devices. Only after exposure to strong poisons occurs almost instantaneous poisoning (no longer than a few minutes). If the latent period is set in time, it will greatly facilitate the prevention and control of the disease.
What other periods of illness are there?
Harbinger stage
Another name for this stage is prodromal. It is observed from the moment of the first manifestations and continues until the development of the usual clinical picture. The prodrome stage is a logical result of the insufficient effectiveness of adaptation processes, the main function of which is to normalize the homeostasis of the body at a time when the causes of the disease are active. At this stage, the first subjective and objective non-specific signs appear: fatigue, malaise, pain in muscles and joints, irritability, loss of appetite, discomfort, headaches, fever, sometimes chills, etc. Consider the rest of the periods of the disease.
Stagesevere illness
During the stage of pronounced manifestations, or peak, general and local symptoms characteristic of the disease appear. If it goes unfavorably, various complications may occur (for example, coma in diabetes mellitus). At the same time, at this stage of development, adaptive mechanisms still continue to operate, although not so effectively to stop the disease on their own. During this acute period of the disease, the main signs develop, while some diseases have a more or less definite the duration of the course (especially infectious), while others, especially chronic ones, do not have this property.
The following forms of diseases are observed:
- acute, short-lived (several days - 2-3 weeks);
- recurrent;
- chronic, resulting from acute events lasting more than six weeks.
Exact dates cannot be established, since everything depends on the specifics of the pathology, the intensity and time of exposure of the pathogenic agent to the body, the endurance of the person himself.
The main periods of the disease are considered. But there is still a stage of recovery or other options for the outcome of the pathology.
There are the following options for the end of the disease: recovery (incomplete and complete), relapse, remission, complication, development into chronic, death.
Full recovery
Consists in the formation of effective adaptive reactions and processes that successfully eliminate the cause and / or pathogenicthe consequences of the disease, restoring the self-regulation of the body in full. However, there is no guarantee that the body will return to its pre-morbid state. After recovery, qualitatively and quantitatively different vital signs appear, new functional systems are formed, the activity of metabolism and the immunobiological surveillance system changes, and many other adaptive changes also develop. This is influenced by the main periods of the course of the disease.
Incomplete recovery is typical for the body in cases where residual effects of the disease and individual deviations from the norm persist.
Relapse
Relapse - re-intensification or re-development of signs of the disease after they have already been eliminated or weakened. The symptoms are similar to those of the primary disease, but may differ in some cases. Relapse occurs most often due to the action of the causes that caused the initial episode of malaise, a decrease in the effectiveness of adaptive mechanisms or the body's ability to resist any factors. This is characteristic of periods of infectious diseases.
Remission
Remission is a stage of the disease, which is characterized by temporary mitigation (incomplete, followed by relapse) or elimination (complete) of symptoms. Most often, this period occurs as a consequence or feature of the causes of the disease, or is associated with changes in the reactivity of the patient's body, as well as with treatment that does not allow to recover completely.
Complication
Complication is a process that develops against the background of a disease, but is not necessarily characteristic of it. Most often, complications arise as a result of the indirect action of the causes of the disease or associated with the components of the process of its course (for example, with an ulcer, perforation of the walls of the intestine or stomach can occur).
Fatalities
If the disease develops unfavorably, it is likely to develop into a chronic, protracted one, as well as such a period of disease development as the death of the patient, when the body is not able to adapt to new conditions, is depleted, and further existence becomes impossible.
The direct cause of death is cardiac arrest, which may be due to both its defeat and disruption of the brain centers, which are responsible for regulating the functions of the cardiovascular system. Another reason is respiratory arrest, which occurs when the respiratory center located in the medulla oblongata is paralyzed, caused by anemia, hemorrhage, tumor, or exposure to poisons such as cyanide, morphine, etc.
Stages
Death includes the following stages:
- preagony;
- terminal pause;
- agony;
- clinical death;
- biological death.
The first four stages, subject to timely medical interventions, can be reversible.
Agony is characterized by disturbances in the mechanisms of the central nervous system and changes in allbody functions important for life: breathing, heart activity, lowering the temperature, relaxing the sphincters. Often the patient loses consciousness. This state lasts from several hours to two or three days.
The next stage after agony is clinical death, and it is fundamentally reversible. Signs: cessation of breathing, circulation and heartbeat. This period with normothermia lasts 3-6 minutes, but can be prolonged up to 15-25 minutes with hypothermia. Its duration depends on the degree of hypoxia of neurons located in the cerebral cortex.
Clinical death requires resuscitation, which include:
- artificial lung ventilation;
- restoration of blood circulation and cardiac activity, including heart massage, if necessary - defibrillation, start of cardiopulmonary bypass with the use of oxygenated blood;
- correction of acid-base balance and restoration of ionic balance;
- improvement of the state of the system of self-regulation and microcirculation of the body.
After the organism manages to be revived, it is for some time in an unstable post-resuscitation state, which includes the following stages:
- temporary regulation of the vital activity of the body;
- transient destabilization;
- improving life and recovery.
Biological death is the termination of a person's life, which has an irreversiblecharacter. A holistic revival of the body is no longer possible, but the possibility of resuming the work of some organs remains. Thus, although the stages of the disease are conditional, such a classification is used quite widely.
We have covered the main periods of the disease.
