Acute

The word acute has several meanings according to the context.

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1.    It denotes – pointed or sharp at the end.

2.    Used to denote minute distinctions—like clever, shrewd.

3.    To indicate nice sensibility—like acute eyesight and acute hearing.

4.    To indicate sounds like – shrill

5.    It denotes an angle of less than 90 degree.In medicine it is defined as a disease of “rapid onset” but severe and short course.

Acute care, acute renal failure, acute pain, acute stage, acute myeloid leukemia, acute necrosis are some of the terms used in medicine.

Acute pain :

pain is an adverse feeling and it is not pleasant one. It comes all on a sudden, but severe, but it is lasts longer for a short period only as in head ache, a finger with burn. But definitely it is not chronic in nature.

Acute pain can also further defined as the physiological response to stimulus like thermal, mechanical and harmful chemicals. The pain can be defined as short term pain and its causes are easily identifiable. They are having only centralized origin but spread later. The pain is the warning symptoms to warn the damage of any tissue of the body and it disappears when the damaged tissues are healed. They are sudden in nature such as in injury. The duration of the pain is normally very short up to very few seconds, few minutes and few hours. It is the warning to the body to take any steps to be done at once. It does not persist or not long standing after recovery. They are very sharp like a prickling, burning and throbbing.

Acute care:

The facility of arranging necessary, emergency treatment and medical services for chronic and severe diseases. Generally, patients are discharged after giving short term treatment sufficiently and see the patient are in good, stable and healthy condition.

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Acute stage:

An illness attains its severity in all respects of symptoms before recovery and after the period of incubation and this period is called as acute stage.

Some of the acute diseases:

Acute bronchitis:

The lungs are made up of tiny tubes and they are many in numbers. They unite and form bronchial tube. They do the function of carrying oxygen in to the lungs and when they are infected, they become swelled with more production of mucus. This condition is called acute bronchitis and breathing becomes very difficult in this condition. Several symptoms accompany this and they are sore throat, difficulty in breathing, chest pain, fever, cough and wheezing. The common cause for this condition is virus and also exposure to irritant like smoke is also causing this dis-order. This is spread through cough usually and by gastro esophageal reflux. Most of the acute bronchitis vanishes by mere plenty of fluid intake and rest. Usually over- the- counter drugs like pain relievers and nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs are very effective in subsiding the symptoms. Anticongestant and mucolytic agents are also widely used with specific anti-biotics.

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Acute pancreatitis:

pancreatitis is the medical condition of the inflammation of the pancreas. They may be acute by sudden and chronic by recurring and persistent. Acute form always mild and chronic may ends fatal. Acute pancreatitis is not common one. A sudden on set of severe pain in the upper abdomen is the symptom that appears in pancreatitis. It may be caused by gallstones and alcohol intake. Nausea, vomiting, loss of appetite, diarrhea, fever, blood pressure variations, color changes in to yellow in skin and eye are common accompanying symptoms.

Pancreatitis is caused by the activation of the enzyme called trypsin produced by the pancreas itself. Trypsin becomes activated only generally after its release and entrance in to intestine. But in this condition, trypsin is stimulated either by alcohol or by gall stones in the pancreas itself and the tissues of the pancreas are damaged and inflammated causing pancreatitis. Some forms of pancreatitis are caused by infection by bacterias and viruses.  It is necessary to treat this condition suitable at once since pancreatitis may cause serious complications.

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