Degos Disease...Extremely Rare Vasculopathy !!

Degos disease (also called malignant atrophic papulosis) is an extremely rare vasculopathy that affects the lining of the medium and small veins and arteries, resulting in occlusion (blockage of the vessel) and tissue infarction.

The disease is named for Robert Degos who recognized it as a clinical entity in 1942, after it was first described by Kohlmeier in 1941.

What is Degos ?

Degos Disease seems to be a disease of the blood vessels - a thrombotic vasculopathy.

Cells in the linings of the walls of the medium and small veins and arteries under the skin swell when they become inflamed.

This causes the blood flow to be restricted.

Scars left after healing. Lesions on foot had coalesced, broken down and ulcerated. Cellulitis developed with MRSA, and treated with Vancomycin. Ulcers eventually healed after 5 months with daily applications of Manuka honey and then neat Vitamin E (D-Alpha-tocopherol). Scars are sensitive and severe neurological pain has occurred at intervals, treated with Ketamine.

Scars left after healing. Lesions on foot had coalesced, broken down and ulcerated. Cellulitis developed with MRSA, and treated with Vancomycin. Ulcers eventually healed after 5 months with daily applications of Manuka honey and then neat Vitamin E (D-Alpha-tocopherol). Scars are sensitive and severe neurological pain has occurred at intervals, treated with Ketamine.

Smaller groups of lesions, now about 8 years old - all scars and no sensitivity at all.

Lesions about 8 years old. Many have coalesced. Some still become inflamed but most are now scars. The white atrophic centres are flaky.

Lesions about 8 years old. Many have coalesced. Some still become inflamed but most are now scars. The white atrophic centres are flaky.

Where this happens ?

spots (lesions) appear on the skin. They are small and red, slightly raised.

As they develop, the centre becomes dry and white (atrophic). Sometimes the spots itch.

The blood vessels affected include those supplying the skin, gastrointestinal tract, and central nervous system. This can result in bowel ischemia (mesenteric ischemia or ischemic colitis), chronic skin lesions, ocular lesions, strokes, spinal lesions, mononeuritis multiplex, epilepsy, headaches or cognitive disorders. Pleural or pericardial effusions are also reported.

The outcome of this disease can be fatal with a median survival of 2 to 3 years, although some appear to have a benign form (Degos acanthoma) which affects only the skin. There are fewer than fifty living patients at present known worldwide, and less than 200 reported in the medical literature. Treatment options are limited, consist mainly of Antiplatelet drugs or anticoagulants or immunosuppressants, and effect of treatment is limited to case reports.

Sometimes the disease affects blood vessels in other parts of the body. Most commonly, the gut, the central nervous system or the eyes are involved.

Most case histories in the medical literature are of ‘worst case’ scenarios.

Don't get panic?

You will read statistics and numbers which might scare you - but they are often based on projections and on published case reports. There are lots of Degos patients whose cases haven’t been written up and who are alive and well.

There are also lots of confident assertions which just aren’t true! For example: “This disease affects mainly young men” - not in our experience! Or “The lesions don’t appear on the soles of the feet” - wrong again! Percentages and actual numbers can’t be right, as no-one has compared living patients until now. Take it all with a pinch of salt and add your experience to our site and to the data being collected in Dessau,Germany.

Other names for Degos disease are:

• Malignant atrophic papulosis
• Köhlmeier - Degos disease
• Köhlmeier disease
• Degos - Köhlmeier disease
• Degos disease
• Degos syndrome
• Erythrokeratoderma en cocardes
• Thromboangiitis obliterans

Top 10 Most Formidable Women In Modern History !!

Female criminals have captured headlines and imaginations since there were newspapers and people to say "holy crap, a woman did that?"

Not all the women on this list are necessarily criminals, but they are all dangerous in one form or another. They've written manifestos, murdered, maimed, run organized criminal operations, influenced hearts and minds, and even kicked a whole lot of ass.

So without further ado, here are 10 Truly Dangerous Women...!!

01.Aileen Wuornos, a Real Female Serial Killer :-

When it comes to dangerous women, there are few more terrifying than Aileen Wuornos, the best-known American serial killer.

Wuornos, whose story was made into the Hollywood movie "Monster," lived a life seemingly made to create a killer. The closest thing Wuornos ever got to a break was when her father was convicted of raping a 7-year-old girl. It was a break because he never had a chance to meet, and presumably screw up, his infant daughter. When she was 4, Wuornos and her brother were abandoned by their mother in 1960, leaving them to be raised by their maternal grandparents.

02.The Manson Family Women :-

In 1969, through the power of a Svengali-like influence, Charles Manson turned 5 attractive, intelligent young women into vicious criminals.

Sandra Good, Lynette "Squeaky" Fromme, Susan Atkins, Leslie Van Houten, and Patricia "Katie" Krenwinkel will forever be known as the Manson Women.

03.Sandra Avila Beltran, the Drug Queen of the Pacific :-

What does it take to be a truly dangerous woman? Consider Sandra Avila Beltran, who combines a stomach for violence with the power and influence that comes with being a beautiful woman working in a man's field.

Beltran is a massively successful drug cartel leader known in Mexico as a sort of folk hero. They call her "La Reina del Pacífico" (the Queen of the Pacific) for becoming the only woman to rise to prominence in Mexico's violent drug trade. There's even a song written in her honor -- a folk ballad that describes her as "a top lady who is a key part of the business."

In 2001, authorities busted up a shipment of 9 tons of cocaine. The trail led back to Beltran's lover at the time, Juan Diego Espinoza Ramirez, a drug trafficker known as "El Tigre" and wanted by the United States.

04.Ulrike Marie Meinhof, Militant German Activist :-

Bank robberies, bombings and the formation of the German militant group Red Army Faction (RAF) made Ulrike Marie Meinhof one dangerous lady.

Known alternately as a terrorist and a folk hero, there is no question that Meinhof and the RAF were outright criminals. The left-wing members considered themselves communist urban guerillas, and organized in response to what they saw as a reluctance to deNazify conservative West German society.

But even if you agree with her political views, it's hard to get behind Meinhof's actions. After working as a journalist sympathetic to the various socialist and communist student movements emerging in Germany in the late '60s, Meinhof decided it was time to participate. With the help of an armed accomplice, Meinhof helped RAF co-founder Andreas Baader escape from prison. In the process, a 64-year-old librarian was shot, but survived -- the first victim of the Baader Meinhof Gang.

05.Marylin the Colombian Assassin :-

The story of photo journalist Jason P. Howe serves as a grim reminder that there's nothing sexy about a life of murder for hire.

While working on a project in Colombia, Howe befriended a beautiful young girl named Marylin. With friends on all three sides of the complicated conflict between the government military, the Farc rebels and the AUC paramilitaries, she helped Howe navigate a dangerous world where one misstep meant a gruesome death.

06.Aafia Siddiqui, the Highest Ranked Woman in al-Qaeda :-

Without a doubt, the case of Aafia Siddiqui is the strangest and most confusing story in this list.

According to the FBI, Siddiqui was arrested with suspicious items on her person July 17, 2008, in Ghazni, Afghanistan. While being held, Siddiqui is accused of picking up an unsecured rifle and firing at a soldier working with the FBI team. She failed to hit anyone before she was disarmed and shot twice in the abdomen.

Upon her arrest, Siddiqui was called "the most important catch in five years," by former CIA terrorist hunter John Kiriakou.

07.Valerie Solanas, Seriously Hates Men :-

No one else in history has ever proposed a genocide as widespread and sweeping as Valerie Solanas did in her SCUM Manifesto. In 1968, Solanas proposed in her manifesto that every single male in the world should be killed. And Andy Warhol was almost her first victim.

Advocating a new all-female world order, Solanas believed that men were a plague to be wiped out. Oh and SCUM? That stands for Society for Cutting Up Men. To be fair, Solanas had never had an easy time with men. She claimed that she was sexually abused by her father. She never got along with her stepfather. And when her mother sent her to live with her grandfather at 13, things got so bad she was kicked out and rendered homeless by 15.

08.Anne Grigg-Booth, Angel of Mercy :-

Few people ever get as close to you as a nurse does. With notoriously heavy case loads, nurses are the grunts of the health care industry. They deal the most with patients. They administer the drugs. And they hold your life in their hands.

Occasionally that power is abused. History is littered with nurses known by some as Angels of Mercy -- health care professionals who take it upon themselves to put a patient out of his or her misery. Anne Grigg-Booth is one of the best known modern examples.

09.Laila Ali, a True Fighter :-

Laila Ali is the most refined and most non-criminal name on this list, but that doesn't make her any less dangerous. Considered by many to be the greatest female boxer to ever enter the ring, Ali boasts a flawless 24-0 record with 21 wins coming by way of knock out.

10.Domino Harvey, Bounty Hunter :-

"Heads you live. Tails you die."

That was the catchphrase of the enigmatic British model turned bounty hunter Domino Harvey. If you've seen the movie, you know the rough outline of Harvey's life, but what they left out was a debilitating addiction to drugs that would ultimately take her life just months before the movie was released in 2005.

The daughter of British actor Laurence Harvey and model Paulene Stone, Domino grew up priveleged and private-school educated. At first, it seemed she might follow in her mother's footsteps, but the 6-foot-tall unabashed tomboy with a thing for guns and violence didn't mesh with the fashion world. She moved to Los Angeles in 1989 and worked as a ranch hand in San Diego and a volunteer firefighter near the Mexican border before training as a bounty hunter.