Cytokine Storm
A cytokine storm — aka cytokine release syndrome, macrophage activation syndrome, hemophagocytic lymphohistiocytosis — is the result of an immune system gone wild - Matt Windsor
image by: Sherman College of Chiropractic
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Inside a Cytokine Storm: When Your Immune System is Too Strong
The vast majority of people who suffer severe complications from influenza are elderly or have compromised immune systems. In fact, almost 90% of people who die as a result of a flu infection in the United States are over 65, an age when the immune system’s ability to fight infection begins to wane.
But with the fiercest flu season in almost a decade occurring in 2018, news stories about otherwise healthy adults succumbing to the influenza virus were alarmingly common. Why?
Ironically, in most cases, it is the strength of their immune response that can put a healthy person at risk for complications associated with the flu. While most of the time a strong immune system is…
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Here’s a playbook for stopping deadly cytokine storm syndrome
A cheap, simple test, widely available at most hospitals in the United States and worldwide, can help diagnose cytokine storm syndrome, Cron said. “A protein called serum ferritin tends to get very high in this disorder,” he said. “If you are sick enough to be in a hospital and you have a fever, you should get a serum ferritin. It typically comes back in less than 24 hours and almost every hospital can do it, and if it’s high you can work them up for cytokine storm syndrome.”
Navigating the Deadly Cytokine Storm
Awareness of cytokine storms took off during the 1990s, during the H5N1 “bird flu” epidemic. Cytokine storms present as systemic inflammation, multiple organ failure, and high inflammatory parameters like TNF (Zhang W et al. 2020). Cytokine storms have been documented in several infectious diseases and rheumatic diseases, and can also result from tumor immunotherapy.
What is a cytokine storm?
When the cytokines that raise immune activity become too abundant, the immune system may not be able to stop itself. Immune cells spread beyond infected body parts and start attacking healthy tissues, gobbling up red and white blood cells and damaging the liver.
Are You Okay? You Smell Like Cytokines
Nurses and hospice workers say they can smell the final approach of death. Not with sudden death, but with the slow march toward the grave, the body’s systems begin to shut down and metabolism changes, so that breath and skin and fluids give off a distinctive odor that signals the end is near.
Cytokine storm
Cytokine storms are a common complication not only of covid-19 and flu but of other respiratory diseases caused by coronaviruses such as SARS and MERS. They are also associated with non-infectious diseases such as multiple sclerosis and pancreatitis. The phenomenon became more widely known after the 2005 outbreak of the avian H5N1 influenza virus, also known as “bird flu”, when the high fatality rate was linked to an out-of-control cytokine response. Cytokine storms might explain why some people have a severe reaction to coronaviruses while others only experience mild symptoms.
Cytokine Storm
Cytokine storm is an umbrella term encompassing several disorders of immune dysregulation characterized by constitutional symptoms, systemic inflammation, and multiorgan dysfunction that can lead to multiorgan failure if inadequately treated.
Cytokine Storm and the Influenza Epidemic
The cytokine storm is an inappropriate (exaggerated) immune response that is caused by rapidly proliferating and highly activated T-cells or natural killer (NK) cells. These cells are themselves activated by infected macrophages. The cytokine storm must be treated and suppressed or lethality can result.
Haywire Immune Response Eyed in Coronavirus Deaths, Treatment
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Into the Eye of the Cytokine Storm
The cytokine storm has captured the attention of the public and the scientific community alike, and while the general notion of an excessive or uncontrolled release of proinflammatory cytokines is well known, the concept of a cytokine storm and the biological consequences of cytokine overproduction are not clearly defined.
Scientists Uncover Biological Signatures of the Worst Covid-19 Cases
Studies of patients with severe cases of Covid-19 show the immune system lacks its usual coordinated response.
Shelter from the cytokine storm: The changing role for rheumatology in COVID-19
Two of those diagnostic criteria that are shared among various cytokine storms and COVID-19 are elevated ferritins and C-reactive protein (CRP). It should follow, then, that intensivists and hospitalists on the front lines with COVID-19 should obtain these lab results for the most severe patients and treat them accordingly. Not so fast — cytokine storm syndrome is a big umbrella. Understanding the nuances of what falls under that umbrella is critical to making effective treatment decisions.
Inside a Cytokine Storm: When Your Immune System is Too Strong
The vast majority of people who suffer severe complications from influenza are elderly or have compromised immune systems. In fact, almost 90% of people who die as a result of a flu infection in the United States are over 65, an age when the immune system’s ability to fight infection begins to wane. But with the fiercest flu season in almost a decade occurring in 2018, news stories about otherwise healthy adults succumbing to the influenza virus were alarmingly common. Why?
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