Autoimmune Disease & Livedoid Vasculopathy - Connections?

Posted by Martin @mlemieux, Feb 2, 2016

Hi everyone,

I've been reading a lot about Autoimmune Diseases since there's a lot of speculation that the autoimmune system can have a drastic affect on Livedoid Vasculopathy and the prevention of healing Chronic Ulcers.

Organs (ie kidneys, others...) Lymph Nodes:
I was born with one kidney. My one kidney is about the size of two kidneys to make up for the loss, which can cause a lot of autoimmune system problems. Anyone else have problems with either; kidneys, or Lymph Nodes? My lymph nodes are constantly inflamed beyond normal comfort levels making sitting in a car problematic for long rides. My specialists chaulk it up to having open wounds causing my Lymph Nodes to be infected, not offering any alternative to correcting the symptoms and discomfort.

Types of Autoimmune Diseases:
I've looked through MANY Autoimmune Diseases checking all health factors, symptoms. There are so many that relate to those who suffer from LV, that the search is spinning me in circles. For example: Lupus has a great deal of similarities to LV, but enough differences that it cannot help those with LV. So too does Diabetes and a couple of others I can't seem to remember at the moment.

Do any of you have experience with any of this? And/or results from these claims?
@zenk, @gonefishinmt, @prairiesmoke, @angelasmom, @spence and @ceejay

Thanks a million in advance!

Regards,
Martin Lemieux
@Martin_Lemieux

Interested in more discussions like this? Go to the Autoimmune Diseases Support Group.

gonefishinmt | @gonefishinmt | Feb 2, 2016

Martin: More good info. Thanks. I've been tested so many times for autoimmune disease and for diabetes, It's a wonder I have any blood left. Nothing. No positives or markers for any of those diseases. Yet they are so similar in many respects as you and others have pointed out. But no real answers. Today I received my first wound treatment with Dehydrated Amniotic Membrane which is derived from human placenta tissue (for those of you who might be concerned, only placental membranes from full term live births are used). Amniotic membranes have been used in wound care for many years - as long as 100 years. Today, a big use is in facial skin reconstruction (as well as other locations) for seriously burned patients. The brand name of what I received is EpiFix. It's a very thin dehydrated membrane cut to fit the ulcer size and held in place with steri-strips, telfa pad and a gauze wrap. One ulcer was treated with EpiFix. My other open ulcers were covered with DuoDerm dressings. You can 'Google' "placenta membrane wound care" and much info re this will come up. There are several brands. Here is a link to an abstract from CMAJ-JAMC from 1978: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1818641/ ....You may have to copy and paste into your browser address bar.... The abstract includes pics of ankle ulcers being treated with amniotic membrane. The results are striking. Today's products such as EpiFix are much more sophisticated than they were in 1978. Here is a link to the mfgr of EpiFix:... http://www.woundsource.com/product/epifix-amniotic-membrane-allograft ...This site has much information about the product, indications and techniques for use, contraindications, warnings, adverse reactions, etc. I encourage everyone with difficult to treat ulcers to talk to their docs about this. I will let everyone know how this goes.

Martin | @mlemieux | Feb 2, 2016

Hi @gonefishinmt,

RE: Autoimmune & LV:

Thank you for sharing that again. I saw that you wrote something similar on the other posts, but it's good information. There's a study from online which outlines the number of patients who didn't have diabetic ulcers, but instead were being affected from LV and known Autoimmune diseases. Unfortunately, the study didn't outline which autoimmune diseases were found.

Curious to see here if there's a potential correlation or not?

RE: Wound Care / Epifix

Fantastic @gonefishinmt ! Please keep me posted about Epifix®. I have to do some research to see if Epifix® is available in Canada. MiMedx has a shaky past, probably just from negligence since originally they didn't have FDA approval and/or a "biologics license", but interestingly enough, they just bought out "Biologics" this year. Canada has very strict laws preventing products to be sold without government approval.

That being said, It's my opinion that Epifix® shows REAL promise. I've researched similar biological wound care products, but nothing that came close to a "placenta" type healing strategy. If stored properly, a mother's placenta has extraordinary healing properties.

I recommend you keep a daily/weekly log for your wound healing. I now take measurements and timeline photos each time I change my wounds. It's extremely helpful looking back at what healing methods were being used, what effects they had and if any progress was made.

Thanks for the information!

Regards,
Martin Lemieux
@Martin_Lemieux - Tweet

gonefishinmt | @gonefishinmt | Feb 3, 2016

Thanks, Martin - I'm taking your advice and keeping a log with pics................

Martin | @mlemieux | Feb 3, 2016

In reply to @gonefishinmt "Thanks, Martin - I'm taking your advice and keeping a log with pics................" + (show)

Cheers! 🙂

Colleen Young, Connect Director | @colleenyoung | Feb 3, 2016

Speaking of pictures, I really like that you guys uploaded avatar pictures and updated your profile tagline. It's nice to put a "face to a name." Makes our community ... well more of a community. 🙂

zenk | @zenk | Dec 24, 2020

Hi Martin, Still looking for a sufficient treatment for LV ulcers that continue to plague me . Do you have any more info.? I currently have had an extremely large number of Eosinophylls in my CBC . I am still taking xarelto 15mg per day. Nothing keeps the formation of new ulcers from starting usually requiring a skin graft to close.Hope you are doing well, you always posted well thought out questions and discussion. Zenk

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