Primigravida

Primigravida

By: Caleb Bentley

22 July 2010

Disclaimer: This report is not intended to provide medical advice, diagnosis, or treat any diseases.  It is simply for informational and educational purposes to help further knowledge in the subject area.  Please enjoy…

            During a Spring Break trip in 2001, Regina, 22, was celebrating the welcomed break from class with her fiancé, John, 23, and with friends by taking a trip up to the mountains in New Mexico.  They were simply enjoying life and the time with each other.  A few weeks after Spring Break, Regina fell ill, and did not know why.  Everyone else seemed to be fine after the trip, but something was wrong with her.  She went to the doctor, who had an idea of what could be wrong and ordered some blood work to be done.  When the blood work came back, the doctor’s theory was confirmed, Regina had contracted a parasite that caused a very serious disease and a true medical mystery.  This would forever change the course of her young life.  The doctor explained that over the next several months, the parasite would slowly rob nutrients from her body and could do permanent damage to her unless they acted now.  She could have a risky surgery to remove the parasite, which would be dangerous to her and would actually do more harm to her than the parasite itself, or she could take drugs over the next several months in hopes that the parasite would run its course and do as little harm to her as possible.  She opted for the several month drug treatments and hoped that everything would be alright.  The disease that Regina contracted is primigravida (prim-igrav-idə). 

            Though this particular story is made up, there are literally thousands of similar stories just like it reported every year around the globe.  Primigravida, or gravid (grav’ idə), enters the body as microscopic larva until it finds a favorable and warm environment, such as the abdomen.  Gravid is considered a global Endemic disease, that is, a disease that occurs on every continent at a relatively stable frequency [1].  There are prescription medications to prevent the disease, but sadly, most individuals are not properly educated in how to prevent the parasitic infection, much less how it spreads. 

Thanks to modern medical practices and techniques, in 2000, gravida had around a 0.0033% mortality rate (no more than 3.3 deaths per 100,000), [2].  Deaths were mostly due to the massive trauma the parasite can cause in the host’s body.  However, the mortality rate is down when gravida had about 0.6% mortality rate (607.9 deaths per 100,000), in 1915, [3].  These numbers are significantly higher in those who do not seek medical treatment and do not catch this disease early on to take preventative measures to protect those infected. 

            The gravida will germinate in the hosts’ abdomen, causing an “unpleasant discomfort” in the surrounding area.  Almost a full year after the initial infection, the parasite passes or, in some cases, has to be cut, out of the host.  The name of the species, once removed from the host body, is called artigennétos (ar-teeg-en'-nay-tos) [4], but this is not where the story ends.  Thousands of dollars must be spent to take care of a single artigennétos specimen, because it must be kept alive by a team of doctors and experts for as long as possible.

            Despite having been studied for hundreds of years, there is still relatively little known about the species.  Doctors and scientists work around the clock trying to keep these species alive and healthy, so more can be learned from them and to better understand what exactly they are supposed to do and what purpose they serve.  Millions of dollars are spent every year to try and help artigennétos grow into a parvulus (par-vu-lus).  This is a critical time for doctors as many tests and close supervision is needed to ensure the survival of specimen.  Eventually, the parvulus will grow and matures into the final phase, volwassene (foul-was-sence).

            Now back to our story:  Over the next several months, Regina took the medication her doctors and specialists prescribed, and she made several needed trips to specialists in her area to make sure she was alright and to track the primigravida’s progression.  Like all those affected, her cycle stopped, her belly began to distort, and she was constantly sick to the stomach on almost a daily basis.  She continued to work, for a time, but eventually she had to take a leave from her job because her discomfort became so overwhelming.

            Roughly 40 weeks after the microscopic larva took root inside of Regina, her body began to purge itself of the parasitic entities.  Specialists began to work on Regina, to try and lessen the discomfort she was feeling as her body violently ridded itself of the artigennétos.  After a few hours, Regina was finished.  The artigennétos were out of her body and being cleaned up for further processing.  Her now husband, John, looked down as her so proud of how brave she had been through all of this and grateful for her strength.  The nurses finally brought the artigennétos over to the happy new parents.  Regina held her two beautiful neonates in her arms for the first time.  The two parents looked down and smiled at their two beautiful babies, now tightly wrapped in blankets and sleeping soundly in their mother’s arms.

            Thank you for taking the time to my report.  Please, do not ruin the surprise for other readers.  Feel free to leave any comments down below and, as always, be respectful of others opinions.

Work Cited:

[1] http://medical-dictionary.thefreedictionary.com/endemic+disease

[2] http://www.cdc.gov/mmwr/preview/mmwrhtml/ss5202a1.htm

[3] http://www.cdc.gov/nchs/data/series/sr_03/sr03_033.pdf

[4] http://strongsnumbers.com/greek/738.htm

Primigravida: Latin, a woman pregnant for the first time. <http://www.thefreedictionary.com/primigravida>

Gravida: Latin, feminine or a pregnant woman. < http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/gravida>

Artigennétos: Greek, newly begotten, newly born. < http://strongsnumbers.com/greek/738.htm>

Parvulus: Latin, child. <http://www.online-dictionary.biz/latin/english/meaning/parvulus>

Volwassene: Dutch, adult or adulthood. < http://www.woxikon.com/dut/volwassene.php>

Neonate: Latin, a child up to 4-weeks old. < http://www.thefreedictionary.com/neonate>

Photos:

Schistosomiasis Parasite

http://www.wpclinic.org/parenting/fetal-development/second-trimester/ Week 13-16

http://www.pregnancy-stage.com/pregnancy-stages/human-fetal-development.asp Fetal development: fist trimester

Fetus grabs doctors finger during spina bifida surgery while still in the womb

http://embryology.med.unsw.edu.au/ Human development

Proteus Syndrome

Proteus Syndrome

By: Caleb Bentley

14 July 2011

Disclaimer: This report is not intended to provide medical advice, diagnosis, or treat any diseases.  It is simply for informational and educational purposes to help further knowledge in the subject area.  Please enjoy…

            Named after a Greek sea god who could change his shape, Proteus Syndrome, or Proteus, is a disease characterized by abnormal growth of body parts (1).  It is a rare congenital disorder (approximately 200 confirmed cases worldwide), involving the abnormal growth of the bones, skin, or fatty tissues in those affected by this disease, and Hemihypertrophy - overgrowth of one side of the face, body, or limbs.  Though it is unclear as to what causes Proteus, some research suggests that a gene mutation (either chromosome 10 or 16) is the cause of this disorder, but nothing has yet been confirmed.

Each case has extreme variations, ranging from mild, over growth, of fingers and hands, toes and feet; to severe, gigantism of limbs or significant portions of the body (2).  This is known as hypertrophy.  Due to the variations, diagnosis can be very difficult.  Proteus is not considered to be a fatal disease, rather complication early in life are attributed to Proteus are the primary cause of death in most of those who are affected by it.

Although Proteus can visually appear similar to Elephantiasis, they are two different diseases (3, 4).  Elephantiasis, or Lymphatic filariasis, occurs when a mosquito carrying a parasitic worm called Brugia malayi, takes a human meal and infects the human with the parasite.  The parasite invades the lymphatic system, and, for lack of a better term, stops at a specific spot and begins breeding, thus clogging the vessel.  The worms blocking fluids from leaving the limb, causes excessive fluids to accumulate in the limbs surrounding tissues, which causes the swelling associated with the disease.  Kind of like in cartoons when the fire hose gets clogged up and the segment of the hose between the knot and the water source gets bigger and bigger.

(5) Joseph Merrick, A.K.A. "the elephant man", is probably the most famous individual, who is believed, to have this disease.  Born on August 5, 1862, Mr. Merrick skin began to darken and rough growths began to appear on his body.  Unable to find work or due manual labor, due to the growths on his hands and face, Mr. Merrick began working as a side show in 1884 to earn money.  A few months after beginning his “work”, Dr. Frederick Treves visited the show where Mr. Merrick was on display.  Dr. Treves asks to present Mr. Merrick to the London Pathological Society, to which he agrees.  In June 1886, Mr. Merrick is admitted to the London Hospital for treatment, where he lives until his death on April 11, 1890.  He died from asphyxiation in his sleep, possibly due to the weight of his own head.  With Mr. Merrick’s approval in life, his body was cast in plaster post-mortem and his skeleton in still on display at the London Hospital for scientific and medical research.

As of this report (July 2011), there is neither treatment nor cure for Proteus.  Surgery can cut away some of the infected tissue to lessen the appearance or prolong life, but that is about it.

This report is pretty short due to the lack of research into this disease.  Most of the sources I found said the same things: it’s most likely caused by a genetic mutation, there are wide variations in the severity of this disease, Joseph Merrick is possibly the most well known person who was affected by this disease, and there is no known cure or treatment.

Thank you for taking the time to read what I had to say.  Please, feel free to leave any comments below and let me know what you though.  As always, please be respectful of others opinions, even if they do not agree with your own.

Word Sited:

(1)   <http://howshealth.com/proteus-syndrome/>

(2)   http://www.kumc.edu/gec/support/protwww.html

(3)   http://medical-dictionary.thefreedictionary.com/elephantiasis

(4)   http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2007/09/070920145417.htm

(5)   http://josephcareymerrick.com/

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OpqjtF1eGXg

Gigantism/ Proteus Syndrome of the feet and toes

Possible Proteus of the arms

Joseph Merrick 1

Joseph Merrick 2

Joseph Merrick's skeleton from the London Hospital

Joseph Merrick's skeleton from the London Hospital 2

Elephantiasis life cycle

Elephantiasis of the legs 1

Stage 3 Elephantiasis

Elephantiasis 2

http://www.mandysellars.com/