Infectious and inflammatory causes
When inflammation or infection develops, throbbing pain appears in the legs, the skin around the area of inflammation turns red and swells. A rash may appear and the temperature may rise. The area of the leg with the source of inflammation increases in size, which limits movement2.
Such manifestations may indicate an inflammatory process in the pelvic organs (pain in the inner thighs), gout, rheumatoid and reactive arthritis, erysipelas of the skin of the thighs and legs, and other problems2.
Causes of joint diseases
With the development of civilization, the number of factors that negatively affect human health has increased. In particular, on his musculoskeletal system. At the same time, the age threshold for joint diseases is reduced. Obvious reasons for their appearance:
- insufficient physical activity (physical inactivity) leads to excess weight and muscle sagging;
- poor environmental conditions and poor nutrition provoke allergies, which, in turn, cause inflammation and degenerative changes in the joints;
- a careless attitude towards the first pain in the joints (it will go away on its own) often makes a visit to the doctor too late;
- Age matters – the risk of getting sick increases with age.
It should be remembered that joint diseases cause damage to internal organs. Therefore, treatment cannot be delayed.
Vascular pain
Pain in the legs of vascular origin is most often associated with obliterating endarteritis, varicose veins of the lower extremities, and thrombophlebitis.
With endarteritis, pain occurs during exercise and goes away after rest or if the legs are lowered down. Approximately the same symptoms accompany atherosclerosis of the vessels of the lower extremities, when the lumen of the vessels narrows and the tissues suffer from a lack of oxygen6.
Thrombophlebitis and varicose veins often accompany each other. Due to the weakness of the vascular wall, the veins expand, become deformed, and blood flow in them is disrupted. There is pain, a “humming” sensation, and heaviness in the legs. By the end of the day, the legs swell, but when you lift them up, it becomes easier7.
Thrombophlebitis is an acute dangerous condition in which pain in the leg occurs suddenly and has a bright, burning, pulsating character. At the site where the blood clot appears, a dense formation is felt inside the vein. The temperature may rise and the area of the leg may turn red. In this condition, you need to urgently contact an angiosurgeon8.
Joint diseases: causes, types
Diseases of the musculoskeletal system are divided into groups: dystrophic (arthrosis), inflammatory, infectious (arthritis).
Arthrosis. Dystrophic group
- The disease affects all parts of the joints: ligaments, cartilage, surrounding muscles. Occurs under the influence of the following factors:
- injuries or previous operations;
- low estrogen levels (in women during menopause);
- excess weight;
- heredity.
Arthrosis affects mainly people over 40-45 years of age, as well as the elderly. The disease comes in different types:
- Gonarthrosis. Destruction and deformation of cartilage in the knee. It is difficult for a person to walk and lameness appears.
- Coxarthrosis. Impaired mobility in the pelvic area and the appearance of skin spurs. Surgery is recommended.
- Periarthrosis. Stiffening of the feet, as well as the shoulder - scapula, elbow and wrist areas.
- Osteochondrosis. Damage to intervertebral discs and nerve roots. May lead to intervertebral hernia.
- Ankylosing spondylitis. Affects intervertebral units. In the worst case scenario, it immobilizes the spine.
Arthritis. Inflammatory and infectious group
This disease can occur in different forms: acute or chronic. In all cases, it is characterized by severe pain. Arthritis occurs against the background of injuries, allergic reactions, diseases of the nervous system, metabolism and infection.
Symptoms of the disease:
- acute pain when walking;
- stiffness of movements;
- red spots on the affected area;
- elevated temperature.
At a doctor’s appointment, the patient needs to share his observations. This will speed up the diagnosis.
There are 4 types of arthritis:
- Bursitis. As a result of injury, the periarticular bursa fills with inflammatory fluid. The disease is fraught with complete incapacity of the infected limb.
- Hoffa's disease (lipoarthritis). Inflammation of the fatty tissues of the knee due to increased stress. The leg does not straighten. Most often professional athletes get sick.
- Schlatter's disease. The knee joint is poorly supplied with blood, causing the core of the bone to collapse.
- Perters disease. Affects the hip joint and causes tissue necrosis. Most often, the disease affects children from 2 to 14 years old.
Diagnosis of hidden infections
05/27/2021
The standard view is that
inflammation
is the body’s immune response to an infection. But, in some cases, autoimmune inflammation is possible, the nature of which has not yet been sufficiently studied.
Inflammatory process
activates cell migration, enhances the flow of various substances from the blood plasma into the cell. Leukocytes penetrate through the vesicular endothelium, and part of the blood plasma enters the inflammatory exudate from the capillaries. Capillaries become tightly filled with blood, and their walls increase permeability.
Antibodies, complement, blood plasma enzymes, chemokines, vasoactive mediators of leukocytes, etc. flow into the area of the inflammatory process in large quantities.
Having reached the source of inflammation, leukocytes release mediators whose task is to activate the cells. However, the main regulator of the inflammatory response is antigen. This has been confirmed by research: when it is possible to quickly eliminate the antigen from the tissues, the inflammatory process decreases or disappears.
Some mediator functions of the immune system are performed by acute phase proteins: fibrinogen, prothrombin, celuroplasmin, transferrin, ferritin, haptoglobin and others. Measuring the level of individual cytokines does not make it possible to adequately assess the resistance of cellular immunity, since cytokines have a short half-life, then they bind to the receptors of target cells and then exist in a soluble form. The biological effect of one cytokine can only be realized with the help of another. The strength of the cellular component of the immune system can be assessed through neopterin, which is an integral marker of the action of all cytokines on monocytes and macrophages.
Neopterin
is an intermediate in the synthesis of biopterin, which activates lymphocytes. The immune inflammatory reaction is always characterized by a significant accumulation of neopterin. The level of neopterin is measured for the purpose of clinical assessment of the effect of immunomodulators (interferons, neoplasm necrosis factors, interleukins), differential diagnosis of viral pathogens from bacterial ones, as well as to monitor the effectiveness of immunostimulation.
Biological markers of inflammation also include:
- MRP8, MRP14;
- C-reactive protein;
- serum amyloid A protein (SAA);
- peroxides;
- cytokines;
- chemokines.
MRP14
and
MRP8
are proteins that are produced only by neutrophils during the resting phase. But with the development of active inflammation, their production also begins in infiltrated tissue, keratinocytes, epithelial cells and macrophages. Phagocytes secrete MRP8 and MRP14. These proteins form Ca2+-dependent hetero- and homocomplexes of different compositions. The MRP8/14 heterocomplex is called calprotectin or L1 protein. Serum amyloid A protein is a clear marker of acute inflammation. It is a precursor of tissue fibrillar protein AA.
Hepatocytes
(
during inflammation
) intensively produce SAA, as a result of which its content in the blood increases sharply. When the inflammatory process ends, macrophages destroy excess SAA. If inflammation is chronic, macrophages cannot completely destroy SAA, and amyloid fibrils are synthesized from it. Amyloid is a glycoprotein consisting of fibrillar proteins.
Availability C
-
reactive protein
- a sign of acute inflammation or necrosis. It is synthesized in the liver and gives leukocytes greater mobility, and, by binding to T lymphocytes, stimulates their activity. C - reactive protein also stimulates precipitation, phagocytosis, aggulutination, and the process of complement fixation.
An increase in the content of C-reactive protein is especially pronounced in the following diseases:
- acute viral processes;
- rheumatism;
- fungal infections;
- rheumatoid arthritis;
- acute bacterial infections;
- rheumatic heart disease;
- parasitic acute infections.
Circulating immune complexes are composed of antibodies, antigens and complement C3, C1q, C4. With an excess of antigen and the appearance of IgM, C1q - a complement component, the size of immune complexes increases and they are sometimes retained in the renal cortex or perivascular space. This causes additional inflammatory processes. Analysis of the percentage of circulating immune complexes provides significant information in assessing the severity of inflammatory and autoimmune diseases.
Pathological reactions of the body to its own immune complexes are, in particular, associated with a deficiency of certain normal complement components or with certain defects in the phagocytic defense system.
Peroxides
- These are free radicals. They are observed in a wide range of diseases, for example, hepatitis, rheumatoid arthritis, etc. A free radical is a molecule that contains one or more unpaired electrons. These molecules exhibit destructive activity against cells and can cause their death. Examples of free radicals are superoxide and hydroxyl. Assessment of total oxidative activity makes it possible to monitor the effectiveness of antioxidant therapy.
Chemokines
are heparin-binding molecules consisting of 25 or more low molecular weight cytokines. Chemokines are released upon reaching the inflammatory focus, then bind to the sulfate groups of heparin on the surface of the endothelium.
Cytokines
carry out the function of intercellular signaling that inflammation is developing somewhere in the body.
In the initial stage of the inflammatory process in local tissues, the cytokines IL-1 and IL-6 predominate. Then lymphocytes and mononuclear phagocytes appear at the site of inflammation. Under the influence of antigen, they activate the production of cytokines IL-1, IL-4, INF-gamma, TNF-alpha. All these substances stimulate cell migration and affect the vascular endothelium. IL-8 has an activating chemotactic effect on cells. The production of eosinophils is influenced by the cytokines IL-3 and IL-5, and the production of T cells by the cytokines IL-2. If hyperproduction of cytokines is observed for a long time, this is considered an unfavorable diagnostic sign regarding the prognosis of recovery. Select an address for testing. Any questions?
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