Chapter 283 Confirmed! The terrifying brain-eating amoeba!
Most patients with allergic rhinitis have a habit.
"Rinsing the nasal cavity with cold water".
This action will relieve nasal congestion and other conditions a lot.
Xu Qiu hadn't thought of this before.
Because allergies are indeed not related to Luo Di's disease.
The key is - washing the nose!
Flushing the nasal cavity was originally a habit for patients with allergic rhinitis to relieve symptoms, but it is associated with another rare disease.
Xu Qiu immediately opened the browsing history and searched for the literature he had read.
After a few dozen seconds, he opened one of the web pages.
"Progress in the Study of Transmission Characteristics and Prevention of Naegleria fowleri"
This is a paper by a professor at the School of Public Health of Fudan University.
The Naegleria fowleri in the content has a more terrifying and popular name:
Brain-eating amoeba!
This is an extremely rare disease.
At present, there are only more than 100 patients found worldwide, and only four of them survived.
The reason why it is called brain-eating is that after Naegleria fowleri drills into the human brain, it will multiply rapidly and spread along the meninges to the central part of the brain, causing purulent meningitis, vascular hemorrhage and brain parenchyma necrosis.
And.
Since Naegleria fowleri feeds on other bacteria and microorganisms in nature, they often parasitize a large number of bacteria in their bodies.
Therefore, after a patient is infected with Naegleria fowleri, it is often not a single brain-eating amoeba that erodes the brain, but different bacteria multiply at the same time and damage the brain together.
As for why Xu Qiu would associate brain-eating amoeba with washing the nose.
It has been found that there is only one way for brain-eating amoeba to enter the brain-invading from the nasal mucosa and then entering the brain along the olfactory nerves!
There is no food or drink, it only has a little chance to lock the brain from the nasal cavity.
And once it succeeds, the disease will be extremely fierce.
This is also the reason for the extremely high mortality rate.
If Luo Di is really infected with brain-eating amoeba, he has begun to struggle on the line of life and death countless times.
…
At this moment, Xu Qiu felt like a ray of hope.
Although the test results have not yet been obtained, there is no doubt that the brain-eating amoeba can explain all the symptoms of Luo Di.
High fever.
It is an inflammatory response caused by bacterial reproduction and massive parasite reproduction and infection.
Abnormal excitement is most likely due to information disorder in the cerebral cortex.
The unrelieved severe pain is related to the pathogenicity and explosiveness of the brain-eating amoeba itself.
It destroys the host brain neurons by the phagocytic action of the food cup on the surface of the body and the soluble molecules in the cells.
In addition, it will also exert toxic effects through secreted proteins.
When these things accumulate to a certain extent, they are released and exploded in the patient's brain in an instant, causing strong central nervous system symptoms and severe pain, which are by no means offset by simple analgesics.
Xu Qiu immediately called the laboratory department.
Doctor Gu on the other side was a little surprised and said, "Is it the patient Luo Di? Doctor Xu, I just got the results and was about to call you. This patient should have purulent meningitis!"
As expected...
Purulent meningitis is one of the stages of brain-eating amoeba.
If the doctor does not have the concept of brain-eating amoeba, he may take purulent meningitis as the final diagnosis.
And this will ruin the patient's life.
"Doctor Gu, please ask them to take another sample and focus on parasites!" Xu Qiu ordered.
"Brain parasite infection? This is rare...Okay, my colleagues and I will check it specifically and get back to you later!"
Doctor Gu moved quickly.
After about half an hour, she called back with surprise in her tone: "We drew three sections of cerebrospinal fluid and found some parasites in the last tube! After testing, it was confirmed that it was Naegleria fowleri!"
The sound of swallowing saliva came from the phone.
It was the first time that Doctor Gu saw this thing.
Even the director of the laboratory department has never encountered a case in his more than 30 years of medical career.
Brain-eating amoeba is too unfamiliar to laboratory doctors.
In other words, all Naegleria fowleri cannot appear in the samples of the laboratory department.
Because it is very fragile.
The digestive juices of the digestive tract, the antibodies secreted by the mucous membrane, and even the lysozyme in the saliva can crush Naegleria fowleri in minutes, leaving no trace of life.
However, Naegleria fowleri can stand out from the crowd and become the only one that threatens humans, and even be dubbed the "brain-eating amoeba" because of one characteristic.
It is highly sensitive to acetylcholine!
This is a neurotransmitter in mammals, but it is a substance that drives brain-eating amoeba crazy.
After the brain-eating amoeba comes to the nasal cavity, it is attracted by the rich acetylcholine in the olfactory epithelial cells and drills deep into the mucosa.
Then, it encounters the olfactory visual receptor cells with higher acetylcholine content.
Finally, it goes up one by one and comes to the paradise full of acetylcholine - the brain.
That's why it's called the brain-eating amoeba. Once it reaches the brain, it will completely let go of itself and reproduce wildly. White blood cells will be wiped out instantly.
"Brain-eating amoeba..." Xu Qiu nodded. The test results completely confirmed his guess.
Doctor Gu was shocked, "Doctor Xu, do you know?"
This is an extremely rare disease with only more than a hundred cases worldwide. It is only recorded in special parasite textbooks.
How could a clinical doctor know such a niche thing!
"Wait, Dr. Xu, you asked me to check for parasites before... You didn't diagnose it long ago!"
At this moment, Dr. Gu couldn't understand it even more.
I can only say that he is worthy of being Dr. Xu!
...
After the results came out, Xu Qiu didn't dare to delay for a moment and immediately issued a new medical order.
1: Kill the parasites.
2: Prevent brain herniation.
The former is to cure the root cause.
As for the latter, the proliferation and infection of brain-eating amoeba will cause a sudden increase in intracranial pressure, causing the brain tissue to be squeezed to other places, which is brain herniation.
Once the brain tissue enters the foramen magnum and compresses the brain stem, the patient's respiratory center related to life will be destroyed instantly, leading to death.
To save Luo Di's life, preventing brain herniation is even more critical.
At this time, after learning the final diagnosis, Wang Ping and He Hai came to the office.
They also had surprise on their faces.
Brain-eating amoeba... Every case discovered can attract considerable attention from the society.
This name is really too scary.
However, no matter Wang Ping, He Hai, or the entire Linhai First Hospital, there has never been a similar case. Luo Di is the patient No. 1 of the brain-eating amoeba in Linhai First Hospital...
"Is this the reward for being a loyal patient of Linhai First Hospital?"
He Hai looked at Luo Di's medical records and suddenly had this idea in his mind.
Wang Ping's brows have not been untied until now. He sighed: "The academic community can only use four words to describe the brain-eating amoeba, helpless... Is there a treatment for this disease?"
The two raised their heads and their eyes fell on Xu Qiu at the same time.
Looking at the doctor's orders issued by the other party, they were aiming to kill the insects.
But...how to kill?
For other types of amoeba that infect organs such as the intestines and liver, there are special anti-amoeba drugs in clinical practice.
But, they are all ineffective against brain-eating amoeba!
Does Xu Qiu have other ways?
