L. donovani itself is not usually the direct cause of death in people with kala-azar, however. Pneumonia, tuberculosis, and dysentery are omnipresent in the immuno-depressed regions where leishmaniasis thrives, and, as with AIDS, it is these opportunistic infections that are more likely to kill, flaring up in a host whose immune system has been weakened by the L. donovani infection. Progress of the disease is extremely variable, taking anywhere from one to twenty weeks, but a typical duration for the Sudanese strain of the disease is narrower, between twelve and sixteen weeks.Even with recovery, kala-azar does not always leave its hosts unmarked. Some time after successful treatment—generally a few months with African kala-azar, or as much as several years with the Indian strain—a secondary form of the disease may set in, called post kala-azar dermal leishmaniasis, or PKDL. This condition manifests first as small, measle-like skin lesions on the face, which gradually increase in size and spread over the body. Eventually the lesions may coalesce to form disfiguring, swollen structures resembling leprosy, and occasionally causing blindness if they spread to the eyes. (This disease is not the same as cutaneous leishmaniasis, a milder disease caused by another protozoan of the Leishmania genus which also causes skin lesions.) Cause
Two species of Leishmania are known to give rise to the visceral form of the disease.
The two, however, are clinically, radiographically, and genetically distinct from one another. Treatment
People with Pyle disease are often asymptomatic. Dental anomalies may require orthodontic interventions. Skeletal anomalies may require orthopedic surgery. Epidemiology
Pyle disease is thought to be a rare disorder, although its prevalence is unknown. More than 25 cases have been described in the medical literature.It has been described in four German families originating from the same town in Bohemia and in a 7-year-old Japanese girl. Research
Cortical-bone fragility is a common feature in osteoporosis that is linked to nonvertebral fractures. Regulation of cortical-bone homeostasis has proved elusive. The study of genetic disorders of the skeleton can yield insights that fuel experimental therapeutic approaches to the treatment of rare disorders and common skeletal ailments. The study showed that Pyle’s disease was caused by a deficiency of sFRP4, that cortical-bone and trabecular-bone homeostasis were governed by different mechanisms, and that sFRP4-mediated cross-regulation between Wnt and BMP signaling was critical for achieving proper cortical-bone thickness and stability.Recently, homozygous mutations in secreted frizzled-related protein 4 gene (SFRP4) gene were found to underlie this condition. Sequencing of coding regions of SFRP4 gene from an 11-year-old female with PYL was performed. A novel homozygous nonsense variant, c.183C>G (p.Y61*) was observed. Segregation analysis in the patient revealed a germline mutation, resulting in reduced protein formation. References


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