Focus on case study in neurology
Case study #1
When Amy accidentally touches a hot burner, she pulls away from her finger, and she feels pain immediately. The neurons are responsible for the transmission of the message from the finger up to the brains. (Tu et al., 2019) shows that When the body detects a painful stimulus, it is warned by the nociceptor fibre of the potential or the actual injuries. The signal that is seen is picked by the dorsal horn of the spinal cord whereby it’s transmitted to various part of the brain. Neurotransmitters facilitate this process of signal transmission.
The nociceptors are sensory receptors that transmit painful stimuli into an electrical signal form that travels to the central nervous system through the neurotransmitters (Tu et al., 2019). The primary neurotransmitters, which is in association with the sensing of the pain, are glutamate and substance. Glutamate receptors are some of the C g-grouped receptors that cause several psychiatric and neurological conditions like depression schizophrenia and anxiety. Glutamate receptors also play a vital role in the mechanism of chronic pain, and they are found in the peripheral and central nervous system. According to (Tu et al., 2019), the pain processing mechanism starts in the dorsal horn, which has ten layers known as the rexed laminae. The C fibers and the A-delta pass information to the nociceptive -specific neurons that are located in rexed laminae I and II.
Spinothalamic and spinoreticular are the significant paths which carry the nociceptive messages to the brain. Spinothalamic tract transmits pain signal, which helps in localizing the pain. (Tu et al., 2019) show that there are three classes of neurons involved in pain transmission. They include first-order neurons, second and third-order neurons. First-order have one axon which splits into two branches. Second-order neurons are found in the rexed laminae of the spinal cord. They decussate in the anterior white commissure and ascend cranially in the spinothalamic tract. Third-order neurons lie between VPL of the thalamus.
The postcentral gyrus is somatotopic ally organized and hence the pain signal initiated in hand will terminate in the cortex area. The body has this response to enable it to adapt rapidly to the changes introduced. If there are no such responses, (Tu et al., 2019) show that the body would have been damaged before realizing or feeling any pain.
Case Study #2
Glen, a forty-five years’ man, is diagnosed with Early Onset Parkinson’s disease after experiencing hand tremors, muffling, and shuffling. Parkinson’s disease is a progressive condition of the central nervous system that results from the loss of cell in the brain’s area that produces dopamine. The condition mostly affects people in their early 60s. when a person is diagnosed with Parkinson’s disease who are less than fifty years, they are said to have Early Onset Parkinson’s disease. (Cristina et al., 2020) dopamine is a type of neurotransmitter that enables the nervous system to send a message between cells. According to (Cristina et al., 2020), dopamine influences how people feel pleasure, and it affects the human ability to think and plan. Moreover, (Cristina et al., 2020) shows that dopamine helps people to focus, strive and see the fun in things. Too little or too much dopamine in the body can cause a range of health complications, including Parkinson’s disease.
According to (Klein et al., 2019), synapses are usually formed between the sending neuron and the dendrites. According to (Cristina et al., 2020), an axon cell can have many branches which can allow it to make synapse with multiple postsynaptic cells. Similarly, neurons can accept many synaptic inputs from diverse sending neurons. The axon terminals of the sending cells have many synaptic vessels inside. (Klein et al., 2019) shows that the synaptic plates are membrane-bound spheres that are filled with neurotransmitter molecules. Between the axon terminal of the sending neuron and the and the membrane of the sending cell is a small gap referred to as the synaptic cleft.
A neurologist may prescribe dopamine agonist to cure Glen’s condition. According to (Cristina et al., 2020), dopamine agonist is prescriptions that imitates dopamine’s action when the levels of the latter are low—acting like dopamine enables this medication to cure conditions that result from the dopamine deficiency. Neurologists may prescribe Dopamine agonists (DA) to Early Onset of Parkinson’s disease patients. (Cristina et al., 2020) shows that DA reliefs Parkinson’s disease symptoms treats the condition for people who are less than sixty years, and has low side effects compared to other treatments of the disease.
Genetic factors are some causes of the early onset of Parkinson’s disease. If genetic testing reveals that Glen carries a gene responsible for the first start of Parkinson’s disease, it would be recommendable to carry out the genetic test on his children. Since hereditary genes are transferred from parents to their offsprings, the examination would reveal if Glen’s children have an autosomal dominant mutation. The recognition of the genes would help in improving the prevention measures against the condition.
Case Study #3
Multiple sclerosis is an autoimmune disease that exists in the central nervous system. The disease affects and disables the spinal cord and brain of a human being. Multiple sclerosis leads to communication impairment of mind and the other body parts. Further, the disease affects human being immunity system as it attacks and weakens the sheath in the body that covers the nerve fibres. Moreover, in most cases, the condition can lead to permanent deterioration and damage of human nerves; hence it requires early treatment.
The symptoms of Multiple sclerosis widely vary, and there is no consensus on the actual signs of the disease. The symptoms that are seen depend on the real damage on the nerves by the condition. Some of the symptoms of the disease include blurred vision, fatigue, dizziness, weakness and numbness in the fingers (Krupp et al., 1988). The condition may also make a patient lose the ability to walk independently. Moreover, one can lose the ability to walk at all, and there is no cure for diseases. Speed treatment can only lead to speed recovery and fighting back of the immune system to modify the disease and its symptoms.
A patient suffering from the disease may also experience tremor, electric- shock sensations that lead to bending of neck and unsteady gait. Many people suffering from the condition may also have a relapsing-remitting disease course. The relapses lead to quiet periods of disease remissions that can go for months or years without coming to an end. Further increase in human temperature worsens the symptoms, but this is not common in many people.
The disease happens when the body’s immune system attacks its tissues leading to damage of the fats that protects nerves fibres in the myelin and brain. The wear on the fibre nerves leads to slow or total blocking of messages that travel along the fibres. The environmental and genetic factors may lead to the disease as it happens to some individuals.
There exist risk factors that may increase the probability of suffering from multiple sclerosis. Some of the risk factors include age. The most affected people are the ones aged between 20 to 40 years. The younger ones and older people also have high chances of getting the disease.
Secondly, sex is another risk factors. Women have high chances of suffering from the disease than men. Thirdly, family history also increases the chances of suffering from the disease. The condition can be inherited from parents. Further, certain infections such as Barr increases the chances of getting the disease. Lastly, the white people from the northern European nations have a higher risk than Africans.
References
Cristina, T. P., Pablo, M., Teresa, P. M., Lydia, V. D., Irene, A. R., Araceli, A. C., … & Rocío, G. R. (2020). A genetic analysis of a Spanish population with early onset Parkinson’s disease. PLOS ONE, 15(9), e0238098.
Klein, M. O., Battagello, D. S., Cardoso, A. R., Hauser, D. N., Bittencourt, J. C., & Correa, R. G. (2019). Dopamine: functions, signaling, and association with neurological diseases. Cellular and molecular neurobiology, 39(1), 31-59.
Krupp, L. B., Alvarez, L. A., LaRocca, N. G., & Scheinberg, L. C. (1988). Fatigue in multiple sclerosis. Archives of neurology, 45(4), 435-437.
Tu, Y., Park, J., Ahlfors, S. P., Khan, S., Egorova, N., Lang, C., … & Kong, J. (2019). A neural mechanism of direct and observational conditioning for placebo and nocebo responses. NeuroImage, 184, 954-963.