Glossary
Acute inflammation.
Direct answer
Acute inflammation is the rapid response of a tissue to injury, infection or irritation, usually developing within hours. Blood vessels widen and become leakier, and white blood cells enter the affected area. Redness, heat, swelling, pain and loss of function are its classical signs. Acute inflammation is short lived and normally part of healing.
Acute inflammation is a programme, not a fault. Vessel dilation, increased permeability and the influx of neutrophils remove pathogens and cell debris and prepare the tissue for repair. The common error is to read every inflammatory sign as damage: without this first phase there is no orderly resolution of inflammation and no clean repair.
In the horse the systemic reaction accompanying acute inflammation is often faster and more pronounced than in humans. Serum amyloid A rises within hours and by a large factor, whereas C-reactive protein, the reference marker in human medicine, moves only modestly in horses. Carrying human reference points across unchanged tends to understate the episode.
Resolution of inflammationChronic inflammationCytokineAcute phase protein
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