Menetrier's disease
Menetrier's disease Causes
The disease take two forms- one for children and one for adults with the childhood form offering better prognosis. Chiildren typically get the disease after getting a viral infection by a cytomegalovirus or bacterial infection caused by Helicobacter pylori. The disease is not inherited. The adult form afflicts more men between the ages of 30 and 60 years old.
Menetrier's disease Definition
M?n?trier disease which is also known as hyperplastic hypersecretory gastropathy, is named after the French physician Pierre Eug?ne M?n?trier and is a disorder in which the gastric mucosal folds or rugae become enlarged.
Menetrier's disease Diagnosis
For diagnosis, the disease can be effectively diagnosed by x-ray (rare) or through an endoscopy and biopsy of the stomach
Menetrier's disease Symptoms and Signs
The most visible symptom is when because the rugae become enlarged that the surface of the stomach becomes swollen. The over-secretion of mucus causes plasma protein levels to dip; tissues become filled with ulcers; as stomach glands waste away, the body loses much of its albumin protein. Other symptoms include, pain after eating, weight loss, cachexia, peripheral edema, ascites and even anemia symptoms secondary to blood loss.
Menetrier's disease Treatment
For adults, there is no other viable treatment other than gastrectomy and going on a monitored high- protein diet. In the surgery, part or all of the stomach may need to be taken out if the disease has progressed to such a point that damage has become extensive. In pediatric cases where the prognosis is often better, patients are treated for specific symptoms after which the disease is expected to clear up within weeks or months.