Are you an EPFL student looking for a semester project?
Work with us on data science and visualisation projects, and deploy your project as an app on top of Graph Search.
Concept
Serum sickness
Summary
Serum sickness in humans is a reaction to proteins in antiserum derived from a non-human animal source, occurring 5–10 days after exposure. Symptoms often include a rash, joint pain, fever, and lymphadenopathy. It is a type of hypersensitivity, specifically immune complex hypersensitivity (type III). The term serum sickness–like reaction (SSLR) is occasionally used to refer to similar illnesses that arise from the introduction of certain non-protein substances, such as penicillin.
Serum sickness may be diagnosed based on the symptoms, and using a blood test and a urine test. It may be prevented by not using an antitoxin derived from animal serum, and through prophylactic antihistamines or corticosteroids. It usually resolves naturally, but may be treated with corticosteroids, antihistamines, analgesics, and (in severe cases) prednisone. It was first characterized in 1906.
Signs and symptoms can take as long as 14 days after exposure to appear. They may include signs and symptoms commonly associated with hypersensitivity or infections. Common symptoms include:
rashes and redness.
itching and urticaria.
joint pain (arthralgia), especially in finger and toe joints.
fever, usually appears before rash. This may be as high as 40 °C (104 °F).
lymphadenopathy (swelling of lymph nodes), particularly near the site of injection.
malaise.
Other symptoms include glomerulonephritis, blood in the urine, splenomegaly (enlarged spleen), hypotension (decreased blood pressure), and in serious cases circulatory shock.
Rarely, serum sickness can have severe complications. These include neuritis, myocarditis, laryngeal oedema, pleurisy, and Guillain–Barré syndrome.
Serum sickness is a type III hypersensitivity reaction, caused by immune complexes. When an antiserum is given, the human immune system can mistake the proteins present for harmful antigens. The body produces antibodies, which combine with these proteins to form immune complexes.
Official source
About this result
This page is automatically generated and may contain information that is not correct, complete, up-to-date, or relevant to your search query. The same applies to every other page on this website. Please make sure to verify the information with EPFL's official sources.