What is Cerebritis

What is Cerebritis

http://www.chacha.com/question/what-is-cerebritis

Cerebritis is an inflammation of the brain tissue, the parenchyma. If caused by infection, it can lead to formation of an abscess.

Related Questions Answered on Y!Answers

what is the difference between MS and Lupus Cerebritis?

Q:

A: MS is a demyelinating condition that can effect both the central (brain and spinal cord) and peripheral nervous systems. Lupus cerebritis is an inflammatory state that is mediated by auto-immune antibodies.

What do u know about Retuxan?

Q: Does anyone know about retuxan for Lupus cerebritis. My 13 year old daughter has this and the doctor wants her to start getting the IV treatment. Unfortunetly , I read that some patients had bad even fatal reactions to this treatment. Please let me know your outlook on this drug and if u or someone u know has ever taken it. She was also having Cytoxan treatments at one time but she had a bad reaction to the second treatment and i had the doctor discontinue it.Please, only serious answers. Thanks in advance.

A: I’m sorry I cannot answer immediately on the use of Retuxan. However, my daughter has had serious systemic lupus for 12 years, diagnosed at age 12. The initial reactions were a huge multitude of what might be called “flare” reactions in nearly every bone and tissue of her body,,rashes, severe thrombocytopenia, low C3-C4 protein complement levels, kidney disease, proteinuria, severe fatigue, headaches, and a story I could write a small book about. Your indication that your 13 yr old has a similar situation caused me some concern mainly on the mention of using Cytoxan as an immediate chemo treatment. While Cytoxan has been shown to virtually stop kidney disease and some other aspects of these huge inflammatory responses, it is also long term highly toxic. There have been later lymphomas associated with its use. The immune system is pretty well destroyed by this potent chemo, and I would certainly think it should be reserved as more of a last resort treatment. To be sure, if Antiphospholipid Syndrome is established with clotting tendencies, then Cytoxan may well be the chemo of choice. It is liked by many rhuematologists, but the drug bothers me from the long term standpoint at such a young age. Sometimes IVIG is used, but gave my daughter a tremendous migraine. Subsequently she was put on a number of meds, had many tests run that were very difficult to interpret, and we must have seen at least 10-12 pedo oncologists, and other specialties who were extremely concerned about the gravity of her situation,,angiograms, constant blood draws, a very very high ANA,,and numerous other positive antibody tests, but the antiphospholipid component causes us to get mixed opinions. Some felt definitely Cytoxan should be used, but others felt it was not full blown Antiphospholipid Syndrome. The opinons differed but she has a totally occluded rt. internal carotid artery that made local, high-powered specialists seek even the Children’s Hospital of Dallas to evaluate this serious and evidently long term blockage of her vital artery in the head. There was apparentely long term alteration by compensation of the body possibly at rough child birth to correct what they now think was a tear in that artery during that period. (Frankly, I was present for that horrible delivery, and have no doubt the old doctor using rough forceps delivery at the time in a very long ordeal delivery, caused this damage to tear her internal carotid artery due to the very difficult time of almost emergency delivery.) But its water under the bridge now. I mention all this to emphasize that Cytoxan is a mystery but very toxic as well to the immune system, and we chose to let them use an alternative chemo, Imuran at first. Large doses of prednisone unfortunately during these first years of the disease may have prevented an early death, but the cost has been high in light of a weight gain over 150 lbs, to the point of a present morbid obesity of nearly 300 lbs. A kidney biopsy around age 13 or 14 revealed Cl III kidney disease, just short of dialysis. When Imuran started causing some serious additional anemias, it was stopped in favor of the newer chemo, Cell Cept, and with some success. She has very high levels of BUN, and protein in her urine, but so far is alive, but disabled, and we had to pull her completely out of college at her sophomore year. She is ambulatory, on many meds, including now much lower prednisone, and large doses of Cell Cept, and a number of other meds for hypertension, rash prevention, etc. She still has migraines on occasion, some rash at times, had a miserable round of Shingles on her upper rt back extending to her rt arm that lasted with residual pain for well over 6 months. Neurontin was somewhat effective, as well as some other things. I’ll stop here. This is what I’ve found thus far in our own miserable situtation that has greatly adversely affected my wife with severe early depression upon hearing our daughter has a grave disease, but she is existing so far. My wife has been down in more recent years with several bad medical problems, but I won’t go into that here. I am the father, and caretaker to the best of my ability. But my wife fought Soc. Security and the job front for a number of years until all this disabled her with multiple problems that thus far are not resolved, and she is home-bound for the most part, but ambulatory within limits. I wish I could tell you more about Retuxan and possibly stem-cell research studies, but constraints of time prevent that and my own fatigue prevents me from pursuing any more ideas at this time until I know more. Sincerely, Goliad