Myelitis

Myelitis
Classification and external resources
ICD-10	G04-G05
ICD-9	323
DiseasesDB	29461
MeSH	D009187

Myelitis is a disease involving inflammation of the spinal cord,^[1] which disrupts central nervous system functions linking the brain and limbs. The name is derived from Greek myelós referring to the "spinal cord", and the suffix -itis, which denotes inflammation.^[2]

Symptoms and signs

Symptoms vary by region of the CNS affected, and include fever, headaches, tingling, pain or loss of feeling, and may extend to central or peripheral paresis and loss of bladder control. Meningeal signs may develop.

Causes

• Infectious mononucleosis can rarely cause transverse myelitis^[3]
• Poliovirus is the cause of poliomyelitis, which, prior to widespread vaccination, was a very common cause of pediatric myelitis.
• Cases of Measles myelitis has been described, with at least 1 case of transverse myelitis secondary to measles.^[4][5]
• Herpes simplex, epstein barr virus, cytomegalovirus, and mycoplasma have been suspected as the eitologic agents of acute disseminated encephalomyelitis.^[6]
• Retroviruses such as MLVs/HGRVs (Murine leukemia viruses/Human gammaretroviruses) and Chronic fatigue syndrome-associated virus (aka deFreitas Retrovirus) as well as enteroviruses have been suspected of being causes of Myalgic encephalomyelits aka Chronic fatigue syndrome.

Types

• Acute disseminated encephalomyelitis
• Myalgic encephalomyelitis aka Chronic fatigue syndrome
• Poliomyelitis
• Transverse myelitis

Prognosis

Untreated myelitis may rapidly lead to a permanently damaged spinal cord.

See also

• Encephalomyelitis
• Myalgic encephalomyelitis aka Chronic fatigue syndrome
• Transverse myelitis

References

1. ^ "myelitis" at Dorland's Medical Dictionary
2. ^ Chamberlin SL, Narins B (eds.) (2005). The Gale Encyclopedia of Neurological Disorders. Detroit: Thomson Gale. pp. 1859–70. ISBN 0-7876-9150-X. 
3. ^ Pediatric Mononucleosis and Epstein-Barr Virus Infection~followup at eMedicine
4. ^ Taylor HB (October 1952). "Measles myelitis: report of a case and a review of diagnostic and therapeutic factors in measles encephalomyelitis". Calif Med 77 (4): 268–9. PMC 1521443. PMID 13009472. http://www.pubmedcentral.nih.gov/articlerender.fcgi?tool=pmcentrez&artid=1521443. 
5. ^ Ayumi Endo, Tatsuo Fuchigami, Yuki Imai, Wakako Ishii, et al. (2009). "A case of acute transverse myelitis due to measles virus". Journal of Pediatric Infectious Diseases 4 (4): 405–8. doi:10.3233/JPI-2009-0193. http://iospress.metapress.com/content/r06k262v7v5l4m15/. 
6. ^ Acute Disseminated Encephalomyelitis at eMedicine