Patients who suffer from acute OI usually manifest the disorder by a temporary loss of consciousness and posture, with rapid recovery, as well as remaining conscious during their loss of posture. This is different from a syncope caused by cardiac problems because there are known triggers for the fainting spell and identifiable prodromal symptoms. As Dr. Julian M. Stewart, an expert in OI from New York Medical College states, "Many syncopal patients have no intercurrent illness; between faints, they are well." Symptoms:
OI is "notoriously difficult to diagnose." As a result, many patients have gone undiagnosed or misdiagnosed and either untreated or treated for other disorders. Current tests for OI can also specify and simplify treatment.
Management
Most patients experience an improvement of their symptoms, but for some, OI can be gravely disabling and can be progressive in nature, particularly if it is caused by an underlying condition which is deteriorating. The ways in which symptoms present themselves vary greatly from patient to patient; as a result, individualized treatment plans are necessary. OI is treated both pharmacologically and non-pharmacologically. Treatment does not cure OI; rather, it controls symptoms. Physicians who specialize in treating OI agree that the single most important treatment is drinking more than two liters of fluids each day. A steady, large supply of water or other fluids reduces most, and for some patients all, of the major symptoms of this condition. Typically, patients fare best when they drink a glass of water no less frequently than every two hours during the day, instead of drinking a large quantity of water at a single point in the day. For most severe cases and some milder cases, a combination of medications are used. Individual responses to different medications vary widely, and a drug which dramatically improves one patient's symptoms may make another patient's symptoms much worse. Medications focus on three main issues: Medications that increase blood volume:
A notable sufferer of OI is Greg Page, founding member and original lead singer of the Australian children's music groupThe Wiggles. It was due to being diagnosed with this illness that Page left the group in 2006 and was replaced by his understudy Sam Moran. Two years later, he went on to create his own fund for OI to help fund research into this then little known disorder. Page recovered sufficiently enough to temporarily return to The Wiggles in 2012 to help with the transition to the next generation of Wiggles, after which he again left the group and was replaced by Emma Watkins.
