Early administration of antibiotics as soon as the diagnosis of meningococcemia has been evoked is a significant therapeutic advance. However, the poor outcome of these diseases whose mortality remains high despite the current techniques of reanimation shows that improving the vaccination against meningococci is still of actuality. Diagnosing rapidly severe meningococcal disease is also a means for acting against the pathological activation of the inflammatory and coagulation pathways. Significant advances have been made in understanding the physiopathology of the meningococcal purpura fulminans especially about the deleterious role of the deficiency of the protein C and the antithrombin III. It is too soon to advance that the prognosis of these diseases has been improved by these new therapeutic approaches but the results of preliminary clinical studies are encouraging. However, informing parents about the first skin abnormalities seen in infants with purpura fulminans is essential in attempt to improve the efficiency of these new therapeutic strategies.
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http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/s0369-8114(02)00362-0 | DOI Listing |
Purpura fulminans (PF) is a rare but devastating complication of sepsis characterized by a highly thrombotic subtype of disseminated intravascular coagulation (DIC). A medical emergency, PF cases often require the involvement of consultant hematologists to assist with diagnosis and management of patients who are in a highly dynamic and deteriorating clinical situation. Patients who survive past the first 24 to 72 hours often die from complications of unchecked thrombosis rather than from shock, and survivors are usually left with severe scarring and tissue loss.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFPediatr Blood Cancer
March 2025
Department of Pediatrics, Graduate School of Medical Sciences, Kyushu University, Fukuoka, Japan.
Chest
December 2024
Louisiana State University School of Medicine, New Orleans - Baton Rouge Regional Campus. Electronic address:
When an understanding of pathogenesis exists, skin lesions that have the appearance of blood in the skin can provide insight into the mechanisms leading to a systemic process that results in cutaneous manifestations. Of the vascular disturbances of the skin that occur in critically ill patients, some result from a non-hemorrhagic process while occurs represent bleeding into the skin. The lesions of livedo, petechiae, purpura, and ecchymoses can be approached from such a perspective.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFJ Glob Infect Dis
May 2024
Department of Medicine, JNMC, Datta Meghe Institute of Higher Education and Research, Wardha, Maharashtra, India.
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