Intro Flashcards
Disease is…
- A stoppage, interruption, or disorder of an organ or whole body system
- An extension or distortion of the body’s normal physiologic process
Diseases have…
recognized etiologies and a group of manifestations
Meaning of:
- “patho”
- “physiology”
- “pathophysiology”
Patho - Greek for “suffering” or “disease”
Physiology - functions of the human body
Pathophysiology - physiology of altered health
- changes in the cellular and organ level due to disease and how those changes affect total body function
Etiology groups
- biological
- physical forces
- chemical agents
- genetic disorders
- nutritional excess or deficits
- idiopathic diseases
Biological etiologies
viruses and bacteria
Physical force etiologies
- trauma, burns, etc.
- excess force or energy applied to bodily tissue
Chemical agent etiologies
- poisons, acids, etc.
- innate - non living organisms
Genetic disorder etiologies
chromosomal abnormalities
Nutritional excess or deficit etiologies
A patient may have too much or too little minerals or proteins
Idiopathic disease etiologies
- When we cannot pinpoint the exact reason for the disease
- Rare because of scientific advances
Ways to categorize etiologies
Extrinsic - disease occurs outside body
Intrinsic - disease occurs inside the body
Congenital - disease is present at birth
Acquired - disease comes later in life
T/F - diseases only have 1 etiology (cause)
False - diseases commonly have multiple points of origin
Ex - diabetes mellitus II causes: family history, obesity, genetics, etc.
What are manifestations?
- effects of disease
- observable changes in life processes
- apparent and obvious from the outside or inside
Do disease have a long or short preclinical stage before noticeable manifestations?
What is occurring at this stage?
long - biological changes happen
Chronic disease manifestations
- takes a long time for clear manifestations
- can be present for months or years
- causes problems at the cellular and tissue level
signs vs. symptoms
signs: objective, measurable, ex: temperature
symptoms: subjective, internal, only patient is able to report, ex: sore throat
Both: fever
acute disease
relatively severe but self-limiting
subacute
- intermediate between acute and chronic
- not as severe as acute, but not as prolonged as chronic
chronic
- implies a long, continuous process
- can be continuous or have exacerbations and remissions
preclinical
period of disease where manifestations did not occur yet, but will
subclinical
- rare and below radar
- disease is not severe enough to cause noticeable manifestations
- only causes changes on cellular and tissue level
- example: TB
primary intervention
- actions taken by an individual or population to prevent a disease
- takes disease completely off table
example: vaccines
secondary intervention
- connects to the preclinical stage
- does not prevent disease entirely
- actions taken to catch a disease early before clear manifestations
example: pap smears, screenings, lab tests
tertiary intervention
- rehabilitation and recovery after the fact
- actions taken to reduce long term disability
example: medication given to heart attack patients to reduce risk of another
sequelae vs. complications
sequelae - expected, predictable outcomes
complications - unexpected, preventable outcomes
difference: whether we can intervene and prevent manifestations from occurring
mortality
- death producing characteristics due to disease
- statistics that provide information about causes of death in a given population
morbidity
- functional effects of an illness on a person’s life
- persistence + long term consequences
incidence
- how quickly a disease spreads among a population
- number of new cases a particular disease over a defined time period
population
number of people without the disease but at risk of getting it
prevalence
- how many people in the population have the disease right now
