General pathology: acute and chronic inflammation
Pathology · MBBS
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Study notes
A splinter in the finger throbs red and swollen by evening. This is acute inflammation in miniature — vasodilation (redness, heat), permeability (swelling/exudate), neutrophils emigrating to eat bacteria (pus if they die in numbers), prostaglandins sensitizing nerves (pain). Remove the splinter and it resolves; leave it and macrophages take over (chronic), walling it in a granuloma. The five cardinal signs are 2000 years old (Celsus) and still the bedside diagnosis.
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