Inflammation 1 (acute) Flashcards
Define Inflammation
a nonspecific bodily response to a variety of injurious agents
name the Four cardinal manifestations of acute inflammation:
redness, swelling, heat and pain
Define Exudate: i
inflammatory extracellular fluid with high protein content, cells and cellular debris
Define Transudate:
thin acellular serous edema fluid
Define Pus:
purulent exudate important to recognize and important to culture because it usually represents infection
Define Leukocytosis:
increased number of white blood cells counted in the blood
Define Acute phase reactants:
proteins produced in abundance with inflammation, including fibrinogen and complement
Define Sepsis:
the systemic inflammatory response syndrome (SIRS) due to an infection (proven or suspected)
Describe inflammation in a general sense
- Inflammation is a reaction to injurious agents.
- **It is not a disease. **
- **It is not specific. **
- It is a nonspecific host response to something injurious. The something may be a bacterial infection, a fungal infection, a viral infection, a toxic substance or material from dead necrotic cells.
- The response, inflammation itself, can become injurious in, for instance, the acute respiratory distress syndrome.
What are the 6 common causes of inflammation?
- (1) infection,
- (2) tissue necrosis,
- (3) immune reaction,
- (4) trauma,
- (5) foreign bodies
- (6) physical and chemical agents.
What is the difference bw sign and symptom?
A symptom is a subjective experience of an aspect of a disease,
sign is an objective physical manifestation of a disease.
What type of inflammation has a rapid onset (seconds to minutes) and short duration (minutes to a few days)?
acute inflammation
Other than redness, heat, swelling and pain, what is another cardinal symptom/sign of acute inflammation?
loss of function, is sometimes added.
There are five distinctive forms of inflammation: name them. Do they have to happen together?
(1) purulent (suppurative), (2) abscessing (necrotizing), (3) fibrinous, (4) serous and (5) granulomatous.
They are not mutually exclusive.
Inflammation is a complex response. There are 3 components of inflammation: name them
- a vascular response,
- a leukocyte (white blood cell) response
- a systemic (total body) response.
The vascular component consists of what?
What does the vascular component allow?
dilatation and increased permeability.
This vascular response permits an outpouring of fluid, plasma proteins and leukocytes (primarily neutrophils) from the blood into the extracellular space.
The fluid which pours out in acute inflammation can evident of what it contains. Name 3 common manifestations
thin (“serous”),
thick with abundant protein (“fibrinous”)
thick like pea soup with protein and inflammatory cells (“purulent”).
What is the liquid portion of blood that has clotted and been centrifuged to separate the clotted cells and proteins?
serum
Why is serum thin?
Serum is thin because it has a low protein content (and no cells).
Define Plasma. How is fibrin related?
is the liquid portion of blood that has been anticoagulated and centrifuged, leaving a protein-rich liquid portion including the blood clotting factors.
Fibrin is one of those clotting factors.
Describe Serous inflammation. give example
a form of usually acute inflammation marked by an outpouring of a thin fluid from blood vessels or mesothelium
[the lining of the chest or abdominal cavities] (effusion) or a skin blister (effusion into space created between the epidermis and dermis by burn or virus).
describe Fibrinous inflammation
a form of usually acute inflammation featuring deposition of fibrin-rich exudate, on pleura, pericardium, peritoneum or meninges, or in the interstitium of any tissue.
Define edema
Edema is tissue swelling due to accumulation of water.
Purulent inflammation is also called suppurative, although some call it suppurative only when it is also necrotizing. What type of inflammation? produces what? caused by what?
It is usually acute and features production of abundant pus (neutrophils, necrotic cellular debris and edema fluid). It is commonly caused by infection with pyogenic (pus-producing) bacteria.

























