Review the interactive media piece

To Prepare

• Review the interactive media piece assigned by your Instructor. 
• Reflect on the patient’s symptoms and aspects of the disorder presented in the interactive media piece.
• Consider how you might assess and treat patients presenting with the symptoms of the patient case study you were assigned.
• You will be asked to make three decisions concerning the diagnosis and treatment for this patient. Reflect on potential co-morbid physical as well as patient factors that might impact the patient’s diagnosis and treatment.

By Day 7 of Week 8

Case Study

Walden University

January 28, 2021

Case Study

Sabrina has multiple sclerosis, a disease that is most likely to disable the central nervous system, the brain and the spinal cord. In multiple sclerosis, the protective sheath is attacked by the immune system, which results in communication difficulty between the human body and the brain. In the long run, the condition can result in lifelong damage or decline of the nervous system (Brownlee et al., 2017).In Sabrina’s case, she must acknowledge that there is no treatment for the disease. Nonetheless, there are measures that can assist in fastening recovery from attacks, alter the path of the disease and control the symptoms. Some of the treatments may include; plasma exchange in situations where the disease is severe and corticosteroid that controls nerve swelling.

For Sabrina, a blood test will be a significant decision to make. It will help check particular biomarkers related to multiple sclerosis that are presently under expansion and may also help in further diagnosis of the diseases. Removal of cerebrospinal fluid for laboratory examination is also essential. The sample can be used to indicate normality in the antibodies related to multiple sclerosis. The spinal tap can also dictate illness and other conditions that show symptoms like those of multiple sclerosis. Lastly, magnetic resonance imaging can help show areas of the diseases on the patient’s spinal cord and the brain. It will help get an intravenous injection of similar materials to show lesions that highlight the diseases' active phase.

The decisions and recommendations above are literature-supported evidence. Like in Sabrina’s case, diagnosis of the disease can be more problematic in patients with uncommon symptoms or disease. A further check with the spinal fluid examination, induced possibilities, and further imaging may be required in this case. The diagnosis should be impartially straightforward and found on a design of symptoms consistent with the disease and established by brain imaging scans.

The decisions made were to alter the progression of the diseases. Much of the immune reactions related to multiple sclerosis happens in the first stages of the disease. Aggressive tests and treatments for this disease can reduce the disease's relapse rate, decrease the development of new lesions, and possible reduction of brain atrophy and disability build-up risk (Abdullahi et al., 2020). The patient will be most likely to experience less progression than when the condition remains unattended or untreated.

Helping the patient to cope up with the disease also inspired the decisions made. Living with any long-term diseases can be problematic. Different people may use alternative ways to help manage the symptoms, such as muscle pain and fatigue. Therefore, alternative medicine was also an aim to be achieved; these include physical exercises, massage eating healthy and relaxation methods that may help in the patient's physical and mental well-being.

A blood test is always a useful way to do away with or confirm other diagnoses. The blood test was to assist in eliminating other conditions that show the same symptoms as multiple sclerosis. It was to put the treatment one step closer to accuracy (Huang et al., 2017). There was no much difference to what diagnosis had happened to the patient before. Magnetic resonance imaging was expected to show more on the deceases progression. Still, it was highly put under doubt, for it resulted in the thickening of some internal organ's skin and damage. A spinal tab was to help further analyze the disease to show the abnormalities associated with the diseases. It was expected to confirm other condition that was suspected of the patient. However, there was no new condition that was confirmed through the spinal tap.

References

Abdullahi, A., Candan, S. A., Abba, M. A., Bello, A. H., Alshehri, M. A., Afamefuna Victor, E., ... & Kundakci, B. (2020). Neurological and musculoskeletal features of COVID-19: a systematic review and meta-analysis. Frontiers in neurology, 11, 687.

Brownlee, W. J., Hardy, T. A., Fazekas, F., & Miller, D. H. (2017). Diagnosis of multiple sclerosis: progress and challenges. The Lancet, 389(10076), 1336-1346.

Huang, W. J., Chen, W. W., & Zhang, X. (2017). Multiple sclerosis: pathology, diagnosis and treatments. Experimental and therapeutic medicine, 13(6), 3163-3166.

Write a 1- to 2-page summary paper that addresses the following:

• Briefly summarize the patient case study you were assigned, including each of the three decisions you took for the patient presented.
• Based on the decisions you recommended for the patient case study, explain whether you believe the decisions provided were supported by the evidence-based literature. Be specific and provide examples. Be sure to support your response with evidence and references from outside resources.
• What were you hoping to achieve with the decisions you recommended for the patient case study you were assigned? Support your response with evidence and references from outside resources.
• Explain any difference between what you expected to achieve with each of the decisions and the results of the decision in the exercise. Describe whether they were different. Be specific and provide examples.