Classification of disease

Question 1

Define disease?

Answer 1

Disease is a disorder of structure or function in a human that produces specific symptoms or that affects a specific location - it is not simply a direct result of physical injury

Question 2

Define terms used in the nomenclature of disease?

• Primary versus secondary
• Acute versus Chronic
• Eponymous names
• Syndrome versus disease

Answer 2

Primary conditions (main - ie diabetes is the disease)

Secondary (secondary to high blood pressure, athroscelrosis)

Acute (sudden)

Chronic (brought on over time)

Eponymous names – naming a disease after someone else

Syndrome (a group of features together (Headache, difficulty to swallow, keep falling to right) - something that is recognised that is wrong with people)

Disease is a disorder of structure or function in a human that produces specific symptoms or that affects a specific location - it is not simply a direct result of physical injury

Question 3

Describe the classification of disease?

Answer 3

Functional - what function/part is being affected? (sore head)

Biological - what is causing the disease? (haemorrhage - ruptured blood vessel, tumour, trauma)

Socioeconomic and health-what lifestyle choices could cause the disease (hangover)

Functional again – With more information what other structures could you conclude that have been affected? (vascular anomaly, migraine)

Systems or precision medicine - any or all of the above, should try to integrate all symptoms

Question 4

Give some examples of types of diseases?

Answer 4

• Mental
• Autism
• Addiction
• Old age or dementia
• Disability
• Down Syndrome
• Industrial (e.g - asbestos)

Question 5

Describe the epidemiological characteristics of some major human diseases?

Answer 5

Dementia in the elderly - prevalence increases because less people are dying from it

Prevalence – The number of people in the population who have the condition.

Incidence – The number of cases per period of time. New number of cases added with time.

Question 6

What is personalised medicine is trying to achieve?

Answer 6

That patients may have the same label of disease however no one has the exact same disease as there are different environmental and genetic differences between them and we cannot treat them all with the same treatment.

Question 7

Give some examples of types of diseases?

Answer 7

• Mental
• Autism
• Addiction
• Old age or dementia
• Disability
• Down Syndrome
• Industrial (e.g - asbestos)

Question 8

What is Aetiology?

Answer 8

Identification of the cause

Question 9

What is idiopathic?

Answer 9

Where we don’t know the cause

Question 10

What is Koch’s postulates and its 4 principles?

Answer 10

Koch’s postulate is made up of 4 criteria which must be met in order to identify the causative agent of a particular disease;

1) . the microorganism or other pathogen must be present in all cases of the disease
2) . the pathogen can be isolated from the diseased host and grown in pure culture
3) . the pathogen from the pure culture must cause the disease when inoculated into a healthy, susceptible laboratory animal
4) . the pathogen must be reisolated from the new host and shown to be the same as the originally inoculated pathogen

Question 11

What is pathogenesis and give examples?

Answer 11

The mechanism by which cause produces disease

Examples;
•	Inflammation
•	Degradation
•	Carcinogenesis
•	Immune reactions (allergy)