An understanding of the factors surrounding women’s and men’s health, infections, and hematologic disorders can be critically important to disease diagnosis and treatment in these areas.
Case Study Analysis
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Case Study Analysis
The case study concerns a 60-year-old male with urinary frequency and incontinence. The symptoms started three years ago when he was initiated on chemo and radiation therapy due to prostate cancer. He also has a low back and hip pain which began almost one month ago. Lab results reveal a PSA of 7.2 and DRE, an enlarged, nodular prostate. In addition, the x-rays of the LS spine show mild degenerative changes and what seems like a cystic mass close to the spine. The purpose of this paper is to discuss factors affecting fertility, causes of high inflammatory markers in STDs, prostatitis, and anemia.
The Factors That Affect Fertility (STDs)
STDs like gonorrhea and chlamydia have strongly been associated with infertility. Untreated STD infections have a high probability of spreading to the upper female genital tract causing infection in the fallopian tubes and uterus, which cause PID (Smolarczyk et al., 2021). PID results in inflammation, scarring, and obstruction of the fallopian tubes, which prevents the zygote from moving to the uterus for implantation, increasing the risk for ectopic pregnancy.
Inflammatory Markers Rise in STD/PID
Inflammatory markers are elevated in PID, including ESR, C-reactive protein (CRP), and CA-125. In untreated STD cases, the endocervix becomes colonized with microbes that ascend to the upper genital tract. The rise in these inflammatory markers is attributed to inflammation of organs in the upper genital tract, including the endometrium, fallopian tubes, and peritoneum (Smolarczyk et al., 2021).
Why Prostatitis and Infection Happens
Prostatitis is an infection of the prostate by bacteria resulting in urinary symptoms. Infection in the urethra spreads to the prostate, causing inflammation. Bacterial prostatitis can be caused by direct inoculation from manipulation or prostate biopsy (Khan et al., 2018). Systemic reactions often occur when the causative bacteria spread to other body organs through the blood or lymphatic circulation. Manipulation of the patient’s prostate gland in the treatment of prostate cancer can cause inoculation of bacteria in the prostate putting him at risk of prostatitis.
Need for a Splenectomy after a Diagnosis of ITP
Splenectomy is diagnosed in patients with ITP if they do not attain a stable and safe platelet count following corticosteroid therapy. Splenectomy aims to eliminate the spleen, the primary site for the clearance of platelets and the production of autoantibodies (Chaturvedi et al., 2018).
Anemia and the Different Kinds of Anemia
Anemia manifests with a low hemoglobin level of below 12 g/dl. It is classified depending on the RBCs size as normocytic, microcytic, or macrocytic anemia, which is identified using the mean corpuscular volume (MCV) (Chaparro & Suchdev, 2019). Normocytic anemia is seen in anemia of chronic disease and aplastic anemia and has an MCV of 80-100 fl. Microcytic anemia is diagnosed based on an MCV<80 fl and is seen in Iron deficiency anemia and Thalassemias. Lastly, macrocytic anemia has an MCV above 100 fl and occurs in Folic and Vitamin B12 deficiency anemia.
Conclusion
STDs spread to the upper genital tract causing PID, which obstructs the fallopian tubes resulting in infertility. The inflammation in PID causes an increase in inflammatory markers. Infection in the urethra spreads to the prostate, causing prostatitis, and can also spread to the rest of the body, causing a systemic reaction. The different types of anemia are normocytic, microcytic, and macrocytic anemia.
References
Chaturvedi, S., Arnold, D. M., & McCrae, K. R. (2018). Splenectomy for immune thrombocytopenia: down but not out. Blood, 131(11), 1172–1182. https://doi.org/10.1182/blood-2017-09-742353
Chaparro, C. M., & Suchdev, P. S. (2019). Anemia epidemiology, pathophysiology, and etiology in low- and middle-income countries. Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences, 1450(1), 15–31. https://doi.org/10.1111/nyas.14092
Khan, F. U., Ihsan, A. U., Khan, H. U., Jana, R., Wazir, J., Khongorzul, P., Waqar, M., & Zhou, X. (2018). Comprehensive overview of prostatitis. Biomedicine & pharmacotherapy = Biomedicine & pharmacotherapie, 94, 1064–1076. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.biopha.2017.08.016
Smolarczyk, K., Mlynarczyk-Bonikowska, B., Rudnicka, E., Szukiewicz, D., Meczekalski, B., Smolarczyk, R., & Pieta, W. (2021). The Impact of Selected Bacterial Sexually Transmitted Diseases on Pregnancy and Female Fertility. International journal of molecular sciences, 22(4), 2170. https://doi.org/10.3390/ijms22042170