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The signs and symptoms for esophagitis include:
- Heartburn feels like the inside of your chest is burning. It is a symptom of acid reflux or GERD.
- Nausea is the feeling of being sick, specifically with the urge to vomit.
- Swallowing is painful and difficult to pass food through your throat into your esophagus.
- Vomiting, also known as emesis, is the release of the contents of the stomach through the mouth or nose.
- Abdominal pain is when pain is felt in the abdomen.
- Food bolus impaction is an obstruction of the esophagus by swallowed food.
- Acid regurgitation is the backflow of acid from the stomach to the mouth.
- Chest pain is pain felt between the neck and upper abdomen. There are many causes and the pain can range.
- Cough is a reflex to clear the throat of irritants or mucus.
A doctor should be consulted if the signs and/or symptoms do not subside after a few days, are accompanied with flu-like symptoms, do not lessen after treating with over-the counter antacids, and/or make eating food difficult.
The severity of reflux esophagitis is commonly classified into four grades according to the "Los Angeles Classification":
Patients with esophageal candidiasis present with odynophagia, or painful swallowing. Longstanding esophageal candidiasis can result in weight loss. There is often concomittant thrush.
Some patients present with esophageal candidiasis as a first presentation of systemic candidiasis.
In most cases the diagnosis is established based on response to therapy. Patients in whom esophageal candidiasis is suspected should receive a brief course of antifungal therapy with fluconazole. If the infection resolves after treatment with fluconazole, then the diagnosis of esophageal candidiasis is made and no further investigation is needed. However, if the infection persists or if there are other factors involved which may warrant further investigation, then patient will undergo an esophagogastroduodenoscopy if it is safe to do so. Endoscopy often reveals classic diffuse raised plaques that characteristically can be removed from the mucosa by the endsocope. Brushing or biopsy of the plaques shows yeast and pseudohyphae by histology that are characteristic of "Candida" species.
Signs and symptoms of candidiasis vary depending on the area affected. Most candidal infections result in minimal complications such as redness, itching, and discomfort, though complications may be severe or even fatal if left untreated in certain populations. In healthy (immunocompetent) persons, candidiasis is usually a localized infection of the skin, fingernails or toenails (onychomycosis), or mucosal membranes, including the oral cavity and pharynx (thrush), esophagus, and the genitalia (vagina, penis, etc.); less commonly in healthy individuals, the gastrointestinal tract, urinary tract, and respiratory tract are sites of candida infection.
In immunocompromised individuals, "Candida" infections in the esophagus occur more frequently than in healthy individuals and have a higher potential of becoming systemic, causing a much more serious condition, a fungemia called candidemia. Symptoms of esophageal candidiasis include difficulty swallowing, painful swallowing, abdominal pain, nausea, and vomiting.
Thrush is commonly seen in infants. It is not considered abnormal in infants unless it lasts longer than a few weeks.
Infection of the vagina or vulva may cause severe itching, burning, soreness, irritation, and a whitish or whitish-gray cottage cheese-like discharge. Symptoms of infection of the male genitalia (balanitis thrush) include red skin around the head of the penis, swelling, irritation, itchiness and soreness of the head of the penis, thick, lumpy discharge under the foreskin, unpleasant odour, difficulty retracting the foreskin (phimosis), and pain when passing urine or during sex.
Common symptoms of gastrointestinal candidiasis in healthy individuals are anal itching, belching, bloating, indigestion, nausea, diarrhea, gas, intestinal cramps, vomiting, and gastric ulcers. Perianal candidiasis can cause anal itching; the lesion can be erythematous, papular, or ulcerative in appearance, and it is not considered to be a sexually transmissible disease. Abnormal proliferation of the candida in the gut may lead to dysbiosis. While it is not yet clear, this alteration may be the source of symptoms generally described as the irritable bowel syndrome, and other gastrointestinal diseases.
EoE often presents with difficulty swallowing, food impaction, regurgitation or vomiting, and decreased appetite. In addition, young children with EoE may present with feeding difficulties and poor weight gain. It is more common in males, and affects both adults and children.
Many people with EoE have other autoimmune and allergic diseases such as asthma and celiac disease.
Bacterial overgrowth can cause a variety of symptoms, many of which are also found in other conditions, making the diagnosis challenging at times. Many of the symptoms are due to malabsorption of nutrients due to the effects of bacteria which either metabolize nutrients or cause inflammation of the small bowel, impairing absorption. The symptoms of bacterial overgrowth include nausea, flatus, constipation, bloating, abdominal distension, abdominal pain or discomfort, diarrhea, fatigue, and weakness. SIBO also causes an increased permeability of the small intestine. Some patients may lose weight. Children with bacterial overgrowth may develop malnutrition and have difficulty attaining proper growth. Steatorrhea, a sticky type of diarrhea where fats are not properly absorbed and spill into the stool, may also occur.
Patients with bacterial overgrowth that is longstanding can develop complications of their illness as a result of malabsorption of nutrients. Anemia may occur from a variety of mechanisms, as many of the nutrients involved in production of red blood cells are absorbed in the affected small bowel. Iron is absorbed in the more proximal parts of the small bowel, the duodenum and jejunum, and patients with malabsorption of iron can develop a microcytic anemia, with small red blood cells. Vitamin B is absorbed in the last part of the small bowel, the ileum, and patients who malabsorb vitamin B can develop a megaloblastic anemia with large red blood cells.
In older adults, small bowel bacterial overgrowth is associated with a higher frequency of diarrhea, a lower body mass index, and a significantly lower serum albumin concentration.
Acute adenoiditis is characterized by fever, runny nose, nasal airway obstruction resulting in predominantly oral breathing, snoring and sleep apnea, Rhinorrhea with serous secretion in viral forms and mucous-purulent secretion in bacterial forms. In cases due to viral infection symptoms usually recede spontaneously after 48 hours, symptoms of bacterial adenoiditis typically persist up to a week. Adenoiditis is sometimes accompanied by tonsillitis. Repeated adenoiditis may lead to enlarged adenoids.
Cytomegalovirus esophagitis is a form of esophagitis associated with cytomegalovirus.
It is likely to present with a single, deep ulcer as opposed to the multiple shallow ulcers seen in herpes esophagitis.
Adenoiditis is the inflammation of the adenoid tissue, usually caused by an infection. Adenoiditis is treated using medication (antibiotics and/or steroids) or surgical intervention.
Adenoiditis may produce cold-like symptoms. However, adenoiditis symptoms often persist for ten or more days, and often include pus-like discharge from nose.
The infection cause is usually viral. However, if the adenoiditis is caused by a bacterial infection, antibiotics may be prescribed for treatment. A steroidal nasal spray may also be prescribed in order to reduce nasal congestion. Severe or recurring adenoiditis may require surgical removal of the adenoids (adenotonsillectomy).
People with herpes esophagitis experience pain with eating and trouble swallowing. Other symptoms can include food impaction, hiccups, weight loss, fever, and on rare occasions upper gastrointestinal bleeding as noted in the image above and tracheoesophageal fistula. Frequently one can see herpetiform lesions in the mouth and lips.
Small intestine bacterial overgrowth (SIBO), also termed bacterial overgrowths, or small bowel bacterial overgrowth syndrome (SBBOS), is a disorder of excessive bacterial growth in the small intestine. Unlike the colon (or large bowel), which is rich with bacteria, the small bowel usually has fewer than 10,000 organisms per millilitre. Patients with bacterial overgrowth typically develop symptoms including nausea, bloating, vomiting, diarrhea, malnutrition, weight loss and malabsorption, which is caused by a number of mechanisms.
The diagnosis of bacterial overgrowth is made by a number of techniques, with the gold standard being an aspirate from the jejunum that grows in excess of 10 bacteria per millilitre. Risk factors for the development of bacterial overgrowth include dysmotility; anatomical disturbances in the bowel, including fistulae, diverticula and blind loops created after surgery, and resection of the ileo-cecal valve; gastroenteritis-induced alterations to the small intestine; and the use of certain medications, including proton pump inhibitors.
Small bowel bacterial overgrowth syndrome is treated with an elemental diet or antibiotics, which may be given in a cyclic fashion to prevent tolerance to the antibiotics, sometimes followed by prokinetic drugs to prevent recurrence if dysmotility is a suspected cause.
Candidiasis may be divided into these types:
- Mucosal candidiasis
- Oral candidiasis (thrush, oropharyngeal candidiasis)
- Pseudomembranous candidiasis
- Erythematous candidiasis
- Hyperplastic candidiasis
- Denture-related stomatitis — "Candida" organisms are involved in about 90% of cases
- Angular cheilitis — "Candida" species are responsible for about 20% of cases, mixed infection of "C. albicans" and "Staphylococcus aureus" for about 60% of cases.
- Median rhomboid glossitis
- Candidal vulvovaginitis (vaginal yeast infection)
- Candidal balanitis — infection of the glans penis, almost exclusively occurring in uncircumcised males
- Esophageal candidiasis (candidal esophagitis)
- Gastrointestinal candidiasis
- Respiratory candidiasis
- Cutaneous candidiasis
- Candidial folliculitis
- Candidal intertrigo
- Candidal paronychia
- Perianal candidiasis, may present as pruritus ani
- Candidid
- Chronic mucocutaneous candidiasis
- Congenital cutaneous candidiasis
- Diaper candidiasis: an infection of a child's diaper area
- Erosio interdigitalis blastomycetica
- Candidial onychomycosis (nail infection) caused by "Candida"
- Systemic candidiasis
- Candidemia, a form of fungemia which may lead to sepsis
- Invasive candidiasis (disseminated candidiasis) — organ infection by "Candida"
- Chronic systemic candidiasis (hepatosplenic candidiasis) — sometimes arises during recovery from neutropenia
- Antibiotic candidiasis (iatrogenic candidiasis)
Eosinophilic esophagitis (EoE, also spelled eosinophilic oesophagitis), also known as allergic oesophagitis, is an allergic inflammatory condition of the esophagus that involves eosinophils, a type of white blood cell. Symptoms are swallowing difficulty, food impaction, vomiting, and heartburn.
Eosinophilic esophagitis was first described in children but also occurs in adults. The condition is not well understood, but food allergy may play a significant role. The treatment may consist of removal of known or suspected triggers and medication to suppress the immune response. In severe cases, it may be necessary to stretch the esophagus with an endoscopy procedure.
By definition chronic sinusitis lasts longer than 12 weeks and can be caused by many different diseases that share chronic inflammation of the sinuses as a common symptom. Symptoms of chronic sinusitis may include any combination of the following: nasal congestion, facial pain, headache, night-time coughing, an increase in previously minor or controlled asthma symptoms, general malaise, thick green or yellow discharge, feeling of facial 'fullness' or 'tightness' that may worsen when bending over, dizziness, aching teeth, and/or bad breath. Each of these symptoms has multiple other possible causes, which should be considered and investigated as well. Often chronic sinusitis can lead to anosmia, the inability to smell objects. In a small number of cases, acute or chronic maxillary sinusitis is associated with a dental infection. Vertigo, lightheadedness, and blurred vision are not typical in chronic sinusitis and other causes should be investigated.
Chronic sinusitis cases are subdivided into cases with polyps and cases without polyps. When polyps are present, the condition is called chronic hyperplastic sinusitis; however, the causes are poorly understood and may include allergy, environmental factors such as dust or pollution, bacterial infection, or fungus (either allergic, infective, or reactive).
Chronic rhinosinusitis represents a multifactorial inflammatory disorder, rather than simply a persistent bacterial infection. The medical management of chronic rhinosinusitis is now focused upon controlling the inflammation that predisposes patients to obstruction, reducing the incidence of infections. However, all forms of chronic rhinosinusitis are associated with impaired sinus drainage and secondary bacterial infections. Most individuals require initial antibiotics to clear any infection and intermittently afterwards to treat acute exacerbations of chronic rhinosinusitis.
A combination of anaerobic and aerobic bacteria are detected in conjunction with chronic sinusitis. Also isolated are "Staphylococcus aureus" (including methicilin resistant "S.aureus" ) and coagulase-negative "Staphylococci" and Gram negative enteric organisms can be isolated.
Attempts have been made to provide a more consistent nomenclature for subtypes of chronic sinusitis. The presence of eosinophils in the mucous lining of the nose and paranasal sinuses has been demonstrated for many patients, and this has been termed eosinophilic mucin rhinosinusitis (EMRS). Cases of EMRS may be related to an allergic response, but allergy is not often documented, resulting in further subcategorization into allergic and non-allergic EMRS.
A more recent, and still debated, development in chronic sinusitis is the role that fungi play in this disease. It remains unclear if fungi are a definite factor in the development of chronic sinusitis and if they are, what the difference may be between those who develop the disease and those who remain free of symptoms. Trials of antifungal treatments have had mixed results.
Recent theories of sinusitis indicate that it often occurs as part of a spectrum of diseases that affect the respiratory tract ("i.e.", the "one airway" theory) and is often linked to asthma. All forms of sinusitis may either result in, or be a part of, a generalized inflammation of the airway, so other airway symptoms, such as cough, may be associated with it.
Both smoking and secondhand smoke are associated with chronic rhinosinusitis.
Sinusitis (or rhinosinusitis) is defined as an inflammation of the mucous membrane that lines the paranasal sinuses and is classified chronologically into several categories:
- Acute rhinosinusitis – A new infection that may last up to four weeks and can be subdivided symptomatically into severe and non-severe. Some use definitions up to 12 weeks.
- Recurrent acute rhinosinusitis – Four or more full episodes of acute sinusitis that occur within one year
- Subacute rhinosinusitis – An infection that lasts between four and 12 weeks, and represents a transition between acute and chronic infection
- Chronic rhinosinusitis – When the signs and symptoms last for more than 12 weeks.
- Acute exacerbation of chronic rhinosinusitis – When the signs and symptoms of chronic rhinosinusitis exacerbate, but return to baseline after treatment
All these types of sinusitis have similar symptoms, and are thus often difficult to distinguish. Acute sinusitis is very common. Roughly ninety percent of adults have had sinusitis at some point in their life.
Bacterial tracheitis is a bacterial infection of the trachea and is capable of producing airway obstruction.
One of the most common causes is "Staphylococcus aureus" and often follows a recent viral upper respiratory infection. Bacterial tracheitis is a rare complication of influenza infection. It is the most serious in young children, possibly because of the relatively small size of the trachea that gets easily blocked by swelling. The most frequent sign is the rapid development of stridor. It is occasionally confused with croup.
If it is inflamed, a condition known as tracheitis can occur. In this condition there can be inflammation of the linings of the trachea. A condition called tracheo-bronchitis can be caused, when the mucous membrane of the trachea and bronchi swell. A collapsed trachea is formed as a result of defect in the cartilage, that makes the cartilage unable to support the trachea and results in dry hacking cough. In this condition there can be inflammation of the linings of the trachea. If the connective nerve tissues in the trachea degenerate it causes tracheomalacia. Infections to the trachea can cause tracheomegaly.
Chronic bacterial prostatitis is a relatively rare condition that usually presents with an intermittent UTI-type picture. It is defined as recurrent urinary tract infections in men originating from a chronic infection in the prostate. Symptoms may be completely absent until there is also bladder infection, and the most troublesome problem is usually recurrent cystitis.
Chronic bacterial prostatitis occurs in less than 5% of patients with prostate-related non-BPH lower urinary tract symptoms (LUTS).
Dr. Weidner, Professor of Medicine, Department of Urology, University of Gießen, has stated: "In studies of 656 men, we seldom found chronic bacterial prostatitis. It is truly a rare disease. Most of those were E-coli."
Herpes esophagitis is a viral infection of the esophagus caused by "Herpes simplex virus" (HSV).
While the disease most often occurs in immunocompromised patients, including post-chemotherapy, immunosuppression with organ transplants and in AIDS, herpes esophagitis can also occur in immunocompetent individuals.
Tracheitis is an inflammation of the trachea.
Although the trachea is usually considered part of the lower respiratory tract, in ICD-10 tracheitis is classified under "acute upper respiratory infections".
Many foods can lodge themselves in the esophagus, but the most common are meats such as steak, poultry, or pork leading to the colourful description of the phenomenon as steakhouse syndrome. People with food bolus obstruction typically display acute dysphagia (difficulty swallowing), often to the point that they cannot even swallow their saliva, leading to drooling. They may also suffer from chest pain, neck pain, regurgitation of food, or painful swallowing (odynophagia).
Patients with esophageal food boluses are also at risk of complications, such as perforation of the esophagus, and aspiration into the lungs. As a result, urgent treatment of patients with high-risk features, or a lengthy duration of symptoms, is recommended.
Chronic bacterial prostatitis is a bacterial infection of the prostate gland. It should be distinguished from other forms of prostatitis such as acute bacterial prostatitis and chronic pelvic pain syndrome (CPPS).
Symptoms of esophageal strictures include heartburn, bitter or acid taste in the mouth, choking, coughing, shortness of breath, frequent burping or hiccups, pain or trouble swallowing, throwing up blood, or weight loss.
The most common symptoms of GERD in adults are an acidic taste in the mouth, regurgitation, and heartburn. Less common symptoms include pain with swallowing/sore throat, increased salivation (also known as water brash), nausea, chest pain, and coughing.
GERD sometimes causes injury of the esophagus. These injuries may include one or more of the following:
- Reflux esophagitis – inflammation of esophageal epithelium which can cause ulcers near the junction of the stomach and esophagus
- Esophageal strictures – the persistent narrowing of the esophagus caused by reflux-induced inflammation
- Barrett's esophagus – intestinal metaplasia (changes of the epithelial cells from squamous to intestinal columnar epithelium) of the distal esophagus
- Esophageal adenocarcinoma – a form of cancer
Some researchers have proposed that recurrent ear infections, and idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis might be tied, in some cases, to GERD; however, a causative role has not been established. GERD does not appear to be linked to chronic sinusitis.
Proximal enteritis, also known as anterior enteritis or duodenitis-proximal jejunitis (DPJ), is inflammation of the duodenum and upper jejunum. It produces a functional stasis of the affected intestine (ileus) and hypersecretion of fluid into the lumen of that intestine. This leads to large volumes of gastric reflux, dehydration, low blood pressure, and potentially shock. Although the exact cause is not yet definitively known, proximal enteritis requires considerable supportive care.