Immune / Infectious

A rapidly evolving, multi-system allergic emergency — and the one treatment question NCLEX loves: epinephrine first, before any antihistamine.

A retrovirus that destroys the CD4+ helper T cells the immune system needs to coordinate defense — until organisms a healthy body ignores become lethal.

Autoantibodies build immune complexes that deposit wherever blood is filtered or joints are lined — so one disease produces a rash, an arthritis, a cytopenia, and a silent kidney failure at the same time.

Infections the patient did not arrive with — acquired from the devices, the antibiotics, the surfaces, and the hands of the people treating them. Most of them are preventable.

A transplanted organ carries foreign antigens, and the recipient’s T cells and antibodies will attack it unless immune defences are held down for life — which trades rejection for infection, cancer and drug toxicity, and makes daily adherence the single most important thing the patient does.

Inherited defects in B cells, T cells, phagocytes or complement that cause recurrent, severe or unusual infections — the organism points to the broken compartment. Live-vaccine safety, IgA-deficiency transfusion reactions and IVIG infusion safety are the nursing core.

Two autoimmune connective-tissue diseases. Scleroderma (systemic sclerosis) scars skin, gut, lungs and blood vessels — Raynaud’s, reflux and, rarely, a renal crisis that an ACE inhibitor treats. Sjögren’s attacks the tear and saliva glands, causing dry eyes and mouth, with a small lymphoma risk.