Surf Wiki
Save to docs
general/parasitology

From Surf Wiki (app.surf) — the open knowledge base

Recrudescence

Term used to describe relapse, revival, or return of a condition

Term used to describe relapse, revival, or return of a condition

Recrudescence is the recurrence of an undesirable condition. In medicine, it is usually defined as the recurrence of symptoms after a period of remission or quiescence, in which sense it can sometimes be synonymous with relapse. In a narrower sense, it can also be such a recurrence with higher severity than before the remission. "Relapse" conventionally has a specific (albeit somewhat illogical) meaning when used in relation to malaria (see below).

Malaria

In malaria, recurrence can take place due to recrudescence; or relapse; or re-infection (via mosquito transmission). Relapse means that a recurrence has been precipitated by a dormant stage in the liver called a "hypnozoite". Thus, relapse is applied only for those plasmodial species that have hypnozoites in the life cycle, such as Plasmodium vivax and P. ovale. On the other hand, recrudescence means that circulating, multiplying parasites are detected after having persisted in the bloodstream (or elsewhere) at undetectable levels for a period of time, as merozoites (as opposed to hypnozoites). This term is applied for Plasmodium species that are not associated with hypnozoite-mediated recurrences, such as P. falciparum, P. malariae, and P. knowlesi. Recrudescence is also used for malarial recurrence caused by drug-resistant strains of P. vivax and P. ovale where parasites remained in the bloodstream despite treatment.

Melioidosis

In melioidosis, a recurrent infection can be due to re-infection and relapse. Re-infection is a recurrence of symptoms due to an infection with a new strain of Burkholderia pseudomallei following the eradication therapy of melioidosis. Meanwhile, relapse are those who presented with melioidosis symptoms due to failure to clear the infection in the bloodstream after completion of eradication therapy. On the other hand, recrudescence is the recurrence of melioidosis symptoms during the eradication therapy.

Bovine viral diarrhoea

The bovine viral diarrhoea virus (bovine virus diarrhea) is said to be recrudescent for some time after clinical signs have abated, because antibodies plateau c. weeks 10–12, and are not lifelong, auto infection may potentially occur in the acutely infected non-pregnant animal.

Others

Other diseases that may recur following a short or long period of quiescence include shingles (after chicken pox), oral herpes and genital herpes, and Brill–Zinsser disease (after epidemic typhus).

References

References

  1. Elsevier. "Dorland's Illustrated Medical Dictionary". Elsevier.
  2. Wolters Kluwer. "Stedman's Medical Dictionary". Wolters Kluwer.
  3. Merriam-Webster. "Merriam-Webster's Medical Dictionary". Merriam-Webster.
  4. (2011). "Malaria: Origin of the term "hypnozoite"". Journal of the History of Biology.
  5. (2022). "Theoretical origin of genetically homologous Plasmodium vivax malarial recurrences". Southern African Journal of Infectious Diseases.
  6. "The Department of Health - Australia - Malaria Laboratory Case Definition (LCD)". Australian Department of Health.
  7. (July 2017). "Malaria Eradication and the Hidden Parasite Reservoir". Trends in Parasitology.
  8. (February 2014). "Recurrent melioidosis in the Darwin Prospective Melioidosis Study: improving therapies mean that relapse cases are now rare". Journal of Clinical Microbiology.
  9. (March 2015). "Intravenous therapy duration and outcomes in melioidosis: a new treatment paradigm". PLOS Neglected Tropical Diseases.
Info: Wikipedia Source

This article was imported from Wikipedia and is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Content has been adapted to SurfDoc format. Original contributors can be found on the article history page.

parasitology
Want to explore this topic further?

Ask Mako anything about Recrudescence — get instant answers, deeper analysis, and related topics.

Research with Mako

Free with your Surf account

Content sourced from Wikipedia, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.

This content may have been generated or modified by AI. CloudSurf Software LLC is not responsible for the accuracy, completeness, or reliability of AI-generated content. Always verify important information from primary sources.

Report