Intro

Question 1

What is pathology

Answer 1

the study of signs of diseases and mechanisms that underlie disease. It includes the study of the functional and morphological changes in the tissue and fluids of the body during disease.

Question 2

What is disease?

Answer 2

a condition of the living animal or plant body or of one of its parts that impairs normal functioning and is typically manifested by distinguishing signs and symptoms

Question 3

Functional and morphological changes

Answer 3

Functional changes are changes in the function of an organ. The structure of the organ might remain normal.

Morphological changes are changes in the actual structure of an organ.

Question 4

What is a lesion?

Answer 4

A lesion is an abnormal change in structure of an organ or part due to injury or disease

Question 5

Clinical symptoms

Answer 5

The discomfort or pain due to a disease or injury that is felt by the patient.

Question 6

Clinical signs

Answer 6

a medical condition that can be observed by the clinician/pathologist.

Question 7

Aetiology

Answer 7

the cause of the condition/disease – bacteria, virus, protozoa, unusual food,
toxins, sudden change of diet etc.

Question 8

Pathogenesis

Answer 8

the sequence of events from the point at which the lesion began through
its entire development. A step by step progression from the normal stage through to the abnormal structural or functional state.

Question 9

Pathognomonic

Answer 9

A sign/symptom/lesion that is so characteristic of a disease that it can be used to make a diagnosis. E.g. Negri bodies for rabies

Question 10

Diagnosis

Answer 10

this is the process of identifying a disease by its signs, symptoms and results of various diagnostic procedures.

Question 11

Types of Diagnosis

Answer 11

Morphological
Aetiological
Tentative
Differential
Definitive

Question 12

Morphological diagnosis

Answer 12

this is a type of diagnosis that involves naming the lesions.

Question 13

Aetiological diagnosis

Answer 13

this is the type of diagnosis that involves naming the cause of the disease.

Question 14

Tentative diagnosis

Answer 14

this is the type of diagnosis that involves naming your suspected cause of the disease, or a temporal diagnosis based on all the clinical signs, symptoms and lesions.

Question 15

Differential diagnosis

Answer 15

this is a list of diseases that have similar signs to what the animal is exhibiting.

Question 16

Definitive diagnosis

Answer 16

this is the naming the specific disease entity. This is normally done after conducting several tests to rule out or confirm what you had put as tentative and differential diagnosis.

Question 17

Necrosis

Answer 17

refers to the “morphological changes caused by the progressive degradative action of enzymes on the lethally injured cell within the living body”.
After a cell dies, lysosomes rupture and their hydrolytic enzymes are released.
The release and activation of these lysosomal enzymes are responsible for cell necrosis. Simply, necrosis is defined as “localised cell death in a living individual”.

Question 18

Postmortem changes

Answer 18

refer to cell death which accompanies or occurs after death of the
entire body (somatic death).

Question 19

Antemortem changes

Answer 19

refer to those alterations that occur in cells, tissues, organs, etc. before somatic death or in the living individual.

Question 20

Post-mortem autolysis

Answer 20

refers to self-digestion by enzymes that are present within or released into the cytoplasm of cells after death. It is due to total diffuse anoxia.

Question 21

Post-mortem putrefaction

Answer 21

refers to the decomposition of tissues by bacterial enzymes after death of the entire body

Question 22

Rigor mortis

Answer 22

refers to stiffening of all muscles after death. It is related to a progressive decrease in oxygen, ATP, creatinine phosphate, and pH of muscles. Thus, muscle fibres shorten as they pass into rigor. Classically, rigor mortis begins in one to six hours after death and disappears 24 to 48 hours later.

Question 23

Livor mortis

Answer 23

refers to the discolouration of dependent parts of the body after death as a result of red blood cell destruction. It is seen as the “gravitational settling of blood” in the lower (dependent) parts of the body after death.

Question 24

Algor mortis

Answer 24

refers to the cooling of the body after death.