The Changing Microbial Environment and Chronic Inflammatory Disorders

The Changing Microbial Environment and Chronic Inflammatory Disorders

: There is much to be gained from examining human diseases within the expanding framework of Darwinian medicine. This is particularly true of those conditions that change in frequency as populations develop from the human "environment of evolutionary adaptedness" to the living conditions of the rich industrialized countries. This development entails major changes in lifestyle, leading to reduct...

Chronic Inflammatory Demyelinating Polyradiculoneuropathy and Related Disorders

The first case of recurrent neuritis was published by Eichhorst in 1890 (1). In 1958, Austin (2) described steroid responsiveness, recurrence and cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) protein elevation. Dyck and colleagues (3) described the clinicopathological findings of monophasic progression, steady deterioration, stepwise progression and recurrence, with histologic peripheral nervious system (PNS) infl...

Macrolides in Chronic Inflammatory Skin Disorders

Long-term therapy with the macrolide antibiotic erythromycin was shown to alter the clinical course of diffuse panbronchiolitis in the late 1980s. Since that time, macrolides have been found to have a large number of anti-inflammatory properties in addition to being antimicrobials. These observations provided the rationale for many studies performed to assess the usefulness of macrolides in oth...

Arterial Distensibility in Chronic Inflammatory Rheumatic Disorders

The pulse wave velocity (PWV), as an indicator of arterial distensibility, may play an important role in the stratification of patients based on the cardiovascular risk. PWV inversely correlates with arterial distensibility and relative arterial compliance. Decreased arterial distensibility alters arterial blood pressure and flow dynamics, and disturbes coronary perfusion. Systemic immune and i...

The Changing Information Environment