About Connective Tissue Disorder

A friend sent me a link: http://www.healthblurbs.com/about-connective-tissue-disorder-autoimmune-and-mixed-connective-tissue-disease/

I found this article written in an easy-to-understand manner and so informative that I have included a permanent link to it (right hand column). Here are a few quotes from the article, but please take the time to read the entire article. I'm sure you'll find it worthwhile.

Your connective tissue is a fibrous material that provides supportive structure to your body tissue and organs. It’s what gives you shape, holding the framework of your body and cells together.
Your connective tissue is mainly composed of two structural proteins, collagen and elastin. For many connective tissue disorders, an immune system response, directed against your own connective tissue, causes inflammation that damages your collagen and elastin.

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The cause for your immune system to turn on the body its designed to protect is unknown.
Autoimmunity is not the only basis giving rise to a connective tissue issue. A couple connective tissue diseases have a genetic component cause involved, like:

• homocystinuria
• Marfan syndrome
  
• 
  
• osteogenesis imperfecta


• Ehlers-Danlos syndrome

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Oftentimes, the initial symptoms for an individual connective tissue disorder overlap with those of another, such as fatigue, fever and weight loss. So sometimes, the diagnosis of undifferentiated connective tissue disease may be given until a more defining set of symptoms appear.
A connective tissue disease can manifest itself via a myriad of symptoms that indicate various parts of your body are being affected. For instance, here are a couple areas and just some corresponding symptoms:

• joints ~ arthralgia, arthritis
• vascular ~ thrombosis, vasculitis
• nervous system ~ seizures, neuropathy
• muscles ~ muscle weakness, myalgia, myositis
• eyes ~ dry eyes, conjunctivitis, ocular inflammation
• salivary glands ~ dry mouth, salivary gland enlargement
• lungs ~ dyspnea, orthopnea, cough, wheezing, chest pain
• heart ~ angina, chest pain, dyspnea, orthopnea, edema, pericarditis
• skin ~ purpura, alopecia, skin tightening, chronic hives, photosensitivity
• gastrointestinal ~ anorexia, dysphagia, indigestion, abdominal pain, nausea & vomiting, hematemesis, jaundice, diarrhea

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Autoimmune connective tissue disorder development can arise slowly or swiftly. And you may go through health oscillations between periods of remission and flares. Feeling healthy today, but perhaps not the next.

False Colic in QH w/DSLD - ESPA

The quote below comes from the a post in this thread on Horsetopia. Interesting observation from the vet (last sentence). Note that the vet didn't associate the colic/internal organs dying off as part of DSLD-ESPA.

my gelding (quarter horse) who I put down almost exactly one year ago. He was diagnosed with DSLD about 7 months before he died. Notice his low rear fetlocks. He had been having hard to identify hind end lameness, and back pain when the vet diagnosed him. We stopped ridding, put on corrective shoes and made him comfortable. He started laying down a lot and had a hard time keeping on weight. Just 4 week after I bought a new horse to ride, my gelding presented with colic. No impaction, no gas bubble, but it sure looked like colic. After 48hrs 4 vet calls (two tubings), fluids, blood work and no improvement it was obvious he was dying. The vet said they suspected it was some sort of organ failure, not colic.

Obviously, we need more education regarding DSLD-ESPA. False colic is but one of the myriad of symptoms we see as the horse breaks down. It bears repeating. DSLD-ESPA is a systemic connective tissue disease that can affect the legs, but it is NOT a leg disease. Breakdown of the suspensory ligaments is an outward symptom of the chaos that starts in many parts of the animal's connective tissues and progresses through acute degeneration and phases of relative stability. Necropsy results have shown that horses are affected in tendons, ligaments, eyes, aorta, internal organs, and skin.

Although we see nothing wrong on the outside, the horse is being attacked through many areas of it's system. For example, when a horse's skin hurts because the fascia is in an acute phase and they pull away from touch, we may think they're just cranky, when their lungs are in crisis, we think it's allergies, when their gut hurts from acute phase of the organ linings, we think they have colic, etc., etc.

Hot Potato

Someone referred me to a post (regarding DSLD-ESPA and a certain report) on another website.  Please click here to refer back to a previous blog entry that addresses the "report" referred to on the other website.  Incidentally, that "report" was NOT accepted by NAPHA. 

In addition, the information below is from an article by Dr Eleanor Kellon found in the Feb '06 issue of The Horse Journal.

In fact, Dr. Gus Cothran is hot on the trail of genes that may be linked with DSLD and is focusing on areas where genetic changes have been described in association with human diseases that bear a strong resemblance to equine DSLD, such as the Ehlers-Danlos syndrome. 

Ehlers-Danlos is actually a constellation of several different types of connective tissue disorders, with different genetic changes, so pinning this down could take some time if the situation in horses is similar. There are many clinical similarities between E-D and DSLD.  In addition to the abnormal ligaments and tendons, human patients may have changes in their intestinal-tract walls, which leads to bouts of abdominal pain, eye changes, arterial changes and odd progeria (premature aging) or very loose skin. The hope is that the genetic work will eventually lead to a diagnostic test for DSLD. For the moment, most involved with this disease feel very strongly that affected horses should not be bred.

(Click on image to enlarge)