Made by DATEXIS (Data Science and Text-based Information Systems) at Beuth University of Applied Sciences Berlin
Deep Learning Technology: Sebastian Arnold, Betty van Aken, Paul Grundmann, Felix A. Gers and Alexander Löser. Learning Contextualized Document Representations for Healthcare Answer Retrieval. The Web Conference 2020 (WWW'20)
          Funded by The Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Energy; Grant: 01MD19013D, Smart-MD Project, Digital Technologies
          
        
Velvet disease (also called gold-dust, rust and coral disease) is a fish disease caused by dinoflagellate parasites of the genus "Piscinoodinium", specifically "Amyloodinium" in marine fish, and "Oodinium" in freshwater fish. The disease gives infected organisms a dusty, brownish-gold color. The disease occurs most commonly in tropical fish, and to a lesser extent, marine aquaria.
The single-celled parasite's life cycle can be divided into three major phases. First, as a tomont, the parasite rests at the water's floor and divides into as many as 256 tomites. Second, these juvenile, motile tomites swim about in search of a fish host, meanwhile using photosynthesis to grow, and to fuel their search. Finally, the adolescent tomite finds and enters the slime coat of a host fish, dissolving and consuming the host's cells, and needing only three days to reach full maturity before detaching to become a tomont once more.
Muscardine is a disease of insects. It is caused by many species of entomopathogenic fungus. Many muscardines are known for affecting silkworms. Muscardine may also be called calcino.
While studying muscardine in silkworms in the 19th century, Agostino Bassi found that the causal agent was a fungus. This was the first demonstration of the germ theory of disease, the first time a microorganism was recognized as an animal pathogen.
There are many types of muscardine. They are often named for the color of the conidial layer each fungus leaves on its host.
The smuts are multicellular fungi characterized by their large numbers of teliospores. The smuts get their name from a Germanic word for dirt because of their dark, thick-walled, and dust-like teliospores. They are mostly Ustilaginomycetes (of the class Teliomycetae, subphylum Basidiomycota) and can cause plant disease. The smuts are grouped with the other basidiomycetes because of their commonalities concerning sexual reproduction.
Smuts are cereal and crop pathogens that most notably affect members of the grass family ("Poaceae"). Economically important hosts include maize, barley, wheat, oats, sugarcane, and forage grasses. They eventually hijack the plants' reproductive systems, forming galls which darken and burst, releasing fungal teliospores which infect other plants nearby. Before infection can occur, the smuts need to undergo a successful mating to form dikaryotic hyphae (two haploid cells fuse to form a dikaryon).
Mold (American English) or mould (British English) is part of the natural environment. Outdoors, molds play a part in nature by breaking down dead organic matter such as fallen leaves and dead trees; indoors, mold growth should be avoided. Molds reproduce by means of tiny spores. The spores are invisible to the naked eye and float through the air. Mold may begin growing indoors when spores land on moist surfaces. There are many types of mold, but all require moisture for growth.
Symptoms of mold exposure may include nasal and sinus congestion; runny nose, eye irritation; itchy, red, watery eyes, respiratory problems, such as wheezing and difficulty breathing, chest tightness, cough, throat irritation, skin irritation (such as a rash), headache, and persistent sneezing.
Yellow red muscardine is caused by "Paecilomyces fumosoroseus". It can produce reddish patches on the external body and powdery masses of spores internally.
Blastomycosis can present in one of the following ways:
- a flu-like illness with fever, chills, arthralgia (joint pain), myalgia (muscle pain), headache, and a nonproductive cough which resolves within days.
- an acute illness resembling bacterial pneumonia, with symptoms of high fever, chills, a productive cough, and pleuritic chest pain.
- a chronic illness that mimics tuberculosis or lung cancer, with symptoms of low-grade fever, a productive cough, night sweats, and weight loss.
- a fast, progressive, and severe disease that manifests as ARDS, with fever, shortness of breath, tachypnea, hypoxemia, and diffuse pulmonary infiltrates.
- skin lesions, usually asymptomatic, can be verrucous (wart-like) or ulcerated with small pustules at the margins.
- bone lytic lesions can cause bone or joint pain.
- prostatitis may be asymptomatic or may cause pain on urinating.
- laryngeal involvement causes hoarseness.
- 40% immunocompromised individuals have CNS involvement and present as brain abscess, epidural abscess or meningitis.
Cobalt poisoning is intoxication caused by excessive levels of cobalt in the body. Cobalt is an essential element for health in animals in minute amounts as a component of Vitamin B. A deficiency of cobalt, which is very rare, is also potentially lethal, leading to pernicious anemia.
Blastomycosis (also known as "North American blastomycosis", "Blastomycetic dermatitis", and "Gilchrist's disease") is a fungal infection of humans and other animals, notably dogs and occasionally cats, caused by the organism "Blastomyces dermatitidis". Endemic to portions of North America, blastomycosis causes clinical symptoms similar to histoplasmosis. The disease occurs in several endemic areas, the most important of which is in eastern North America, particularly in the western and northern periphery of the Great Lakes Basin, extending eastward along the south shore of the St. Lawrence River Valley and southward in the territory spanned by the central Appalachian Mountains in the east, to the Mississippi River Valley in the west. Sporadic cases have been reported in continental Africa, the Arabian Peninsula and the Indian subcontinent.
Chrysiasis (Gk, "chrysos" – 'gold', "osis" – 'condition of') is a dermatological condition induced by the parenteral administration of gold salts, usually for the treatment of rheumatoid arthritis. Such treatment has been superseded as the best practice for treating the disease because of "numerous side effects and monitoring requirements, their limited efficacy, and very slow onset of action".
Similar to silver, a gold preparation used parenterally for a long period may rarely produce a permanent skin pigmentation – especially if the skin is exposed to sunlight or artificial ultraviolet radiation.
The skin's pigmentation (in this condition) has been described as uniformly gray, grayish purple, slate gray, or grayish blue, and is usually limited to exposed portions of the body. It may involve the conjunctivae over the scleras but usually not the oral mucosa. Location of pigment predominantly in the upper dermis leads to the blue component of skin color through the scattering phenomenon. It is much less likely to be deposited in the nails and hair.
Chrysiasis was said to have been much more common when medicines containing traces of gold were used for treatment of tuberculosis (commonplace forms of treatment nearly fifty years ago). Treatments containing gold traces were also used to treat cases of rheumatoid arthritis – but because the dose used for tuberculosis was higher than for arthritis, it has not afflicted many subscribing to such treatments.
Gold can be identified in the skin chemically by light microscopy, electron microscopy, and spectroscopy.
There is no way to reverse or treat chrysiasis.
Sugarcane smut or "Ustilago scitaminea Sydow" is caused by the fungus "Sporisorium scitamineum"; smut was previously known as "Ustilago scitaminea". The smut 'whip' is a curved black structure which emerges from the leaf whorl, and which aids in the spreading of the disease. Sugarcane smut causes significant losses to the economic value of a sugarcane crop. Sugarcane smut has recently been found in the eastern seaboard areas of Australia, one of the world's highest-yielding sugar areas.
For the sugarcane crop to be infected by the disease, large spore concentrations are needed. The fungi uses its "smut-whip" to ensure that the disease is spread to other plants, which usually occurs over a time period of three months. As the inoculum is spread, the younger sugarcane buds just coming out of the soil will be the most susceptible. Because water is necessary for spore germination, irrigation has been shown to be a factor in spreading the disease. Therefore, special precautions need to be taken during irrigation to prevent spreading of the smut.
Another way to prevent the disease from occurring in the sugarcane is to use fungicide. This can be done by either pre-plant soaking or post-plant spraying with the specific fungicide. Pre-plant soaking has been proven to give the best results in preventing the disease, but post-plant spraying is a practical option for large sugarcane cultivations.
Suberosis, also known as corkhandler's disease or corkworker's lung, is a type of hypersensitivity pneumonitis usually caused by the fungus "Penicillium glabrum" (formerly called "Penicillum frequentans") from exposure to moldy cork dust. "Chrysonilia sitophilia", "Aspergillus fumigatus", uncontaminated cork dust, and "Mucor macedo" may also have significant roles in the pathogenesis of the disease.
Exposure to cobalt metal dust is most common in the fabrication of tungsten carbide. Another potential source is wear and tear of metal-on-metal hip prostheses; however, this is a relatively uncommon phenomenon with 18 reported cases being documented in the medical literature.
Hyperbilirubinemia is the main differential diagnosis to be considered in evaluating jaundice suspected to be carotenemia.
Excessive consumption of lycopene, a plant pigment similar to carotene and present in tomatoes, can cause a deep orange discoloration of the skin. Like carotenodermia, lycopenemia is harmless.
Excessive consumption of elemental silver, silver dust or silver compounds can cause the skin to be colored blue or bluish-grey. This condition is called argyria. A similar skin color can result from prolonged exposure to gold, typically as a little-used medical treatment. The gold-induced greyish skin color is called chrysiasis. Argyria and chrysiasis, however, are irreversible, unlike carotenosis.
Chronic poisoning usually presents with symptoms affecting multiple systems, but is associated with three main types of symptoms: gastrointestinal, neuromuscular, and neurological. Central nervous system and neuromuscular symptoms usually result from intense exposure, while gastrointestinal symptoms usually result from exposure over longer periods. Signs of chronic exposure include loss of short-term memory or concentration, depression, nausea, abdominal pain, loss of coordination, and numbness and tingling in the extremities. Fatigue, problems with sleep, headaches, stupor, slurred speech, and anemia are also found in chronic lead poisoning. A "lead hue" of the skin with pallor and/or lividity is another feature. A blue line along the gum with bluish black edging to the teeth, known as a Burton line, is another indication of chronic lead poisoning. Children with chronic poisoning may refuse to play or may have hyperkinetic or aggressive behavior disorders. Visual disturbance may present with gradually progressing blurred vision as a result of central scotoma, caused by toxic optic neuritis.
Cork is often harvested from the cork oak ("Quercus suber") and stored in slabs in a hot and humid environment until covered in mold. Cork workers may be exposed to organic dusts in this process, leading to this disease.
In acute poisoning, typical neurological signs are pain, muscle weakness, numbness and tingling, and, rarely, symptoms associated with inflammation of the brain. Abdominal pain, nausea, vomiting, diarrhea, and constipation are other acute symptoms. Lead's effects on the mouth include astringency and a metallic taste. Gastrointestinal problems, such as constipation, diarrhea, poor appetite, or weight loss, are common in acute poisoning. Absorption of large amounts of lead over a short time can cause shock (insufficient fluid in the circulatory system) due to loss of water from the gastrointestinal tract. Hemolysis (the rupture of red blood cells) due to acute poisoning can cause anemia and hemoglobin in the urine. Damage to kidneys can cause changes in urination such as decreased urine output. People who survive acute poisoning often go on to display symptoms of chronic poisoning.
Carotenoids are deposited in the intercellular lipids of the stratum corneum, and the color change is most prominent in regions of increased sweating and thickness of this layer. This includes the palms, soles, knees, and nasolabial folds, although the discoloration can be generalized. The primary factor differentiating carotenoderma from jaundice is the characteristic sparing of the sclerae in carotenoderma, which would be involved in jaundice if the bilirubin is at a level to cause skin findings. In contrast to jaundice, carotenoderma is reported to be better observed under artificial light. It is of note that lycopenemia is specifically associated with discoloration of the soft palate and deposition in the liver parenchyma.
The signs and symptoms are generally flu-like. They include fever, chills, nausea, headache, fatigue, muscle aches, joint pains, lack of appetite, shortness of breath, pneumonia, chest pain, change in blood pressure, and coughing. A sweet or metallic taste in the mouth may also be reported, along with a dry or irritated throat which may lead to hoarseness. Symptoms of a more severe metal toxicity may also include a burning sensation in the body, shock, no urine output, collapse, convulsions, shortness of breath, yellow eyes or yellow skin, rash, vomiting, watery or bloody diarrhea or low or high blood pressure, which require prompt medical attention. Flu-like symptoms normally disappear within 24 to 48 hours. Full recovery often requires one to three weeks.
Infectious bovine keratoconjunctivitis, or IBK, is a veterinary infection of cattle caused by "Moraxella bovis", a Gram-negative, β-haemolytic, aerobic, rod-shaped bacterium. It is spread by direct contact or by flies serving as vectors. It is the most common ocular disease of cattle (mostly beef). IBK is similar to human pink eye and causes severe infection of the conjunctiva, edema, corneal opacity, and ulceration. This disease is highly contagious and occurs worldwide. Younger animals are more susceptible, but recovery with minimal damage is usual, if they are treated early. The disease is also known as pinkeye, New Forest eye or blight.
Skin disorders are among the most common health problems in dogs, and have many causes. The condition of a dog's skin and coat are also an important indicator of its general health. Skin disorders of dogs vary from acute, self-limiting problems to chronic or long-lasting problems requiring life-time treatment. Skin disorders may be primary or secondary (due to scratching, itch) in nature, making diagnosis complicated.
A hot spot, or "acute moist dermatitis", is an acutely inflamed and infected area of skin irritation created and made worse by a dog licking and biting at itself. A hot spot can manifest and spread rapidly in a matter of hours as secondary Staphylococcus infection causes the top layers of the skin to break down and as pus becomes trapped in the hair. Hot spots can be treated with corticosteroid medications and oral as well as topical antibiotic application, as well as clipping hair from around the lesion. Underlying inciting causes include flea allergy dermatitis, ear disease or other allergic skin diseases. Dogs with thick undercoat are most subject to getting hot spots.
Aluminosis is a restrictive lung disease caused by exposure to aluminum-bearing dust. Aluminosis can be detected by using high-resolution computed tomography.
The bacteria invade the lacrimal glands of the eye, causing keratitis, uveitis, and corneal ulceration. Cattle show signs of pain, increased lacrimation, excessive blinking, and conjunctivitis. More severe cases may show systemic signs such as anorexia and weight loss. Chronic untreated cases can become blind. Diagnosis is usually based on the clinical signs, but the bacteria can be cultured from lacrimal swabs, or visualised on smears of lacrimal secretions.