In the Comprehensive Clinical Immunology Consultation at Clínica Santa Elena in Madrid you can better understand why a Clinical Immunologist is necessary.
This consultation is attended by a physician specialized in Clinical Immunology with more than 20 years of experience in diagnosis and treatment of different immune-based diseases including immunodeficiencies, autoimmune diseases, hypersensitivity reactions and transplants.
The diagnosis of immune-based diseases is made through a specialized medical history, and through complementary tests, mostly blood tests.
What does an immunologist do?
Immunology is the biological science of medicine that studies the physiological mechanisms of the organism for the destruction of bacteria, viruses and parasites.
Therefore, it can be said that an immunologist is a specialist who is mainly dedicated to researching and studying the human immune system. Thus, the immunologist diagnoses pathologies, alterations and deficiencies of the immune system.
What diseases does the immunologist treat?
An immunologist is trained to treat various diseases, although his work is especially focused on the control and maintenance of the immune system, as well as the control of the body’s defense, paying special attention to the control of infections, autoimmune diseases and immunodeficiencies. Reproductive immunology and ocular immunology are other examples.
- The control of the defenses of the healthy and sick individual in its different components of innate and acquired immunity.
- Primary and secondary immunodeficiencies: patients with recurrent or severe infections. Most frequent primary immunodeficiencies: Selective IgA deficiency, common variable immunodeficiency, antibody production deficits, partial complement deficits, etc. Most frequent secondary immunodeficiencies: patients with immunosuppressive therapy, cancer patients, transplanted patients or patients with chronic viral infections (infection by human immunodeficiency virus or hepatitis virus).
- Autoimmune diseases: counseling in complex cases, autoimmune polyglandular syndromes, extended immunosuppression in cases refractory to conventional therapy.
- Reproductive immunology: study and treatment of women with repeated miscarriages with immunological factor.
- Evaluation of immunological alterations in women with infertility.
- Ocular Immunology: Uveitis, corneal transplant rejection.
- Digestive Immunology: diagnosis of celiac disease, evaluation of immunological comorbidity in inflammatory bowel disease, cryoglobulinemias.
- Transplant Immunology; Organ Transplantation: immunocompetence monitoring; rejection counseling.
- Immunology of the critically ill patient: risk of infection; risk of death after sepsis.
- Indication of prophylactic and therapeutic vaccines.
- Immune-based therapies: intravenous or subcutaneous gamma globulin, monoclonal antibodies and immunosuppressants, mucosal vaccines.
- Advice on home therapy with immunoglobulins.
- Genetic susceptibility study for immunological diseases.
- Neuro-Psycho-Immunology: Evaluation of immunological alterations associated with Chronic Fatigue or Immunological Fatigue.
- Immunological comorbidity in patients with allergies.
- Expertise of cases with immunological based diseases.
When to see an immunologist?
It is necessary to see a clinical immunologist when you have many infections or a serious one; when you have inflammatory problems that do not resolve; women with repeated miscarriages or infertility; transplant patients; patients with processes in which there is a suspected defense problem; as well as healthy people who want to know their immunocompetence status.
Treatment of immune system diseases
The treatment of immunological diseases by the immunologist will depend on the type of problem detected. As an example:
- In immunodeficiencies or in people with recurrent infections, mucosal vaccines or therapy with intravenous or subcutaneous defenses (gamma globulins) can be used, in addition to a correct treatment with antimicrobials.
- Individuals with inflammatory or autoimmune processes may require anti-inflammatory, immunosuppressive (corticosteroids, mycophenolate, tacrolimus) or immunomodulatory (gamma globulin, biologic therapy) therapy.
- In women with recurrent miscarriage of immunologic cause, corticosteroid therapy, gamma globulin, or other forms of immune modulation may be used to increase the likelihood of reproductive success in a subsequent attempt.