How can you recognize inflammation? In most cases, typical symptoms appear, which include pain, redness or swelling. We present further signs of inflammation here.
5 Signs of inflammation
Typical of an inflammatory process are the 5 signs:
- Redness (lat. rubor)
- Swelling (lat. tumor)
- Heat (lat. calor)
- Burning pain (lat. dolor)
- Disturbed functions (Functio laesa)
General, nonspecific signs of inflammation, such as fever, may also occur.
Redness and heat
Various reactions occur in the area of inflammation. Chemical signals cause the release of messenger substances, such as histamine, which lead to dilation of the blood vessels and thus to redness. The intensified blood flow to the diseased area also makes it appear warmer. At the same time, the pores of the capillaries dilate and blood plasma and white blood cells (leukocytes) can escape.
The main task of leukocytes is to defend the body against pathogens. Based on the leukocyte count, the doctor can relatively easily determine whether an inflammation is festering somewhere in the body: he draws some blood and counts the leukocytes. If their number is high, a focus of inflammation has formed somewhere in the body. Differential blood counts (white blood cells are divided into subtypes, each of which performs specific tasks) determine the percentage of certain types of white blood cells to more accurately track a disease.
Swelling and pain
Together with the tissue fluid, the white blood cells create swelling. It presses on the finest nerve endings, causing pain. In some inflammations, such as activated osteoarthritis, connective tissue (fibrin) also swells and multiplies when the osteoarthritis has become chronic.
Swelling and pain together limit function, such as the mobility of an inflamed joint. If the inflammation subsides quickly, the typical inflammatory symptoms also soon subside.
Fever
Everyone knows that fever is a sign of the body’s defense reaction and thus actually something very good. If the body temperature increases, this signals that the organism sets the body’s own defense mechanisms in motion. By fever the body can help itself with inflammations. An increase of just one degree – from 37 to 38 degrees Celsius – can inhibit the multiplication of pathogens. Thus, fever is an important mechanism of the body in the fight against pathogens, toxins, etc.
