Pathology, Inflammation

Excerpt

Inflammation is an ancient medical term initially referring to classic signs and symptoms, including edema, erythema (redness), warmness, pain, and loss of function (stiffness and immobility). Currently, inflammation is recognized as a set of changing responses to tissue injury primarily caused by factors such as toxic chemicals, environmental agents, trauma, overuse, or infection. Some of these responses can facilitate wound healing and infection control or pathology, as in many chronic disease states. Inflammation is a second-line defense against infectious agents. The responses evoked by inflammation are a keystone of pathology. Diseases where inflammation plays a dominant pathological role have the suffix -itis. Both cell-mediated and humoral responses of the immune system are central to inflammation. This activity summarizes how inflammation is linked to cardiovascular disease and cancer, two global causes of mortality and morbidity.