KCP Flashcards
Why are women advised to take folic acid during pregnancy?
Has been shown to reduce neural tube defects.
Closure of the neural tube requires rapid proliferation of neuroepithelial cells, which requires amino acids, supplied by folic acid.
What are the effects of foetal alcohol syndrome?
Facial dysmorphism is common, such as low nasal bridge, thin upper lip, smooth philtrum and small palpebral fissures.
Irreversible nervous system effects.
Low birth weight
Intellectual difficulties
How much alcohol should a pregnant women consume?
Max 1 unit a week, but ideally none.
What are the features of mothers in higher-risk pregnancies?
Women with epilepsy, diabetes, congenital cardiac disease, autoimmune disorders, obesity or mental illness.
What is the ideal diet of a pregnant women?
- Eat fruit, vegetables, starchy foods, protein and dairy.
- Should avoid foods such as soft mould cheeses, pate, raw shellfish, liver products and cured meat
- Vegetarians and vegans are at risk of nutritional deficiency.
- Cut down on caffeine before pregnancy to less than 300mg daily.
- do not take Vit A
What supplements should be taken during pregnancy?
Make sure Vit D levels and calcium levels are adequate as well as iron levels.
400 micrograms of folic acid should be taken daily from trying to conceive to 12 weeks in pregnancy
What are the risks with being an older mother?
- Older mothers have higher cases of miscarriage, medical comorbidity and maternal/foetal mortality.
- Risks of diseases such as obesity, diabetes and heart disease increase with age.
- Older women need C-sections more often due to poorer uterine contractibility.
What is methotrexate and can it be used in pregnancy?
Treatment for rheumatoid arthritis. It is a competitive inhibitor of DHF, which causes a decrease in cell division and amino acid synthesis.
Should be off methotrexate for 3 months before conception and during pregnancy. Safe DMARDs are a replacement option
What is sodium valoproate and can it be used in pregnancy?
Used to treat epilepsy
Can cause neural tube-like defects and associated with cardial, oral and urogenital malformations. Must not be used in women or girls of child-bearing age unless in a Pregnancy Prevention Programme.
What drugs should be avoided during pregnancy?
- methotrexate (0-14 days)
- sodium valporate
- Cytotoxic drugs, eg chemotherapy
- Retinoids used in acne
- Warfarin (especially first trimester)
- ACE inhibitors
- statins
- certain antibiotics, eg tetracyclines Sulfonamides
What are ACE inhibitors and angiotensin receptor blockers and can they be used in pregnancy?
ACEi and ARBs are used for treatment for hypertension, heart failure, and renal disease.
Stop for any duration of pregnancy and during conceiving
May reduce placental blood flow- reduced foetal growth, reduced amniotic fluid, foetal renal damage, low blood pressure.
What are NSAIDs and can they be used during pregnancy?
Medication used to reduced inflammation, can cause premature closure of the ductus arterious, which leads to pulmonary hypertension, Cardiac failure and Foetal hydrops (fluid accumulation in tissues and organs)
What is the ductus arteriosus in a foetus and what can NSAIDs do to it?
The DA enables oxygenated blood to pass from the pulmonary artery to aorta, bypassing the lung. The blood vessel is kept open by prostaglandin E (after birth levels drop and it closes). NSAIDs stop PRE being produced, resulting in a premature closing of the DA
What topics should be discussed in a pre-conception counselling?
GP should ask about occupation (exposures), diet (vegan?), health conditions, smoking, alcohol intake, exercise, attempts to get pregnancy, previous pregnancies, family history, current medications.
What are some foetal neural tube defects?
Birth defects of the brain, spine and spinal cord Spina bifida (neural tube does not close properly)
Does pregnancy impact pharmokinetics?
Yes, effects metabolism and excretion rates. important to monitor drug levels to ensure there is maternal or foetal toxicity
Should pregnant women take over the counter drugs?
Consult doctor before taking them.
Stay away from NSAIDs eg ibuprofen
Paracetamol is safe
What stages of foetal development are different parts of the body effected?
What is the microbiome and what roles does the microbiome have in weight?
The microbiome is the bacteria, fungi and viruses that colonise the body. The gut, skin and vagina all have their own microbiome.
Two common gutmicrobes are bacteroidetes and firmicutes. Firmicutes generate more harvestable energy, and are more common in obese people.
F/B ratio important, high= obesity, low= inflammatory bowel disease
What are risk factors for type 2 diabetes?
- Being overweight/obesity
- age
- low social-economic status
- sedentary lifestyle
- unhealthy diet choices
- cigarette smoking
- genetic ancestry
- family history of type 2 diabetes
- psychosocial stress and depression
What are the symptoms and diagnosis techniques for Diabetes mellitus?
Symptoms of hyperglycemia are polyuria, polydipsia and thirst. Other symptoms are fatigue, recurrent infections and weight loss (for type 1).
Random plasma glucose or after a 75g glucose load > 11.1 mmol/L, a fasting plasma glucose > 7 mmol or haemoglobin A1c > 48 mmol/mol. In asymptomatic patients need two investigations separated in time.
What is Haemoglobin A1C-glycated haemoglobin and why is it important in diabetes?
In diabetes, attachment of glucose to haemoglobin increases the amount in the HbA1 (glycated Hb) and the fraction of HbA1 to HbA0 (non-glycated) can be separated by chromatography. This can help diagnose diabetes
Normal range is 20-42 mmol/mol
Important to rememberthat HbAlc takes time to be elevated as red blood cells live for 3 months.
What are the differences in type 1 and type 2 diabetes?
What is the pathophysiology of type 1 diabetes?
A T-cell mediated autoimmune disease involving destruction of the beta cells in the pancreatic islets. Susceptible individuals who are exposed to a environmental trigger then developed β-cell autoimmunity that led to progressive loss of β cells. This process was seen to take place over a prolonged period.
The pathology in the pre-diabetic pancreas is characterised by an inflammatory lesion within islets, ‘insulitis’, with infiltration of the islets by mononuclear cells containing activated macrophages, helper cytotoxic and suppressor T lymphocytes, natural killer cells and B lymphocytes.
This leads to the beta cells no longer producing and excreting insulin around the body.
What is the pathophysiology of type 2 diabetes?
The primary cause of insulin resistance remains unclear, one theory is intra-abdominal ‘central’ adipose tissue (which is metabolically active) and releases large quantities of free fatty acids, which may induce insulin resistance because they compete with glucose as a fuel supply for oxidation in peripheral tissues such as muscles
What is the treatment for type 1 diabetes?
Requires insulin therapy.
Common to have a basal long-acting insulin combined with meal insulin boluses of short-acting insulin (basal-bolus). Continuous subcutaneous insulin pumps can also be used.
What is the treatment for type 2 diabetes?
Lifestyle advice, nutritional advice and weight loss advice.
Exercise, stop smoking and reduce alcohol.
Other drug treatments are metformin which sensitises insulin action and opposes action of glucagon and causes increased glucose uptake by muscle. It causes weight loss and the most common side effect is GI upset.
Other drugs are also used:
What are the complications of having diabetes?
- hypertension
- cardiovascular disease
- kidney disease
- retinopathy
- neuropathy
- increased risk of infections
What is the anatomy of the pancreas?
The normal adult pancreas contains about 1 million islets of langerhans. The core of each islet consists of β cells that produce insulin, and is surrounded by a cortex of other cells such as alpha cells (produce glucagon)
What is the significance of urine and blood ketones in diabetes?
Ketonuria (high levels of ketone in your urine) may be found in people who have been fasting or exercising strenuously for long periods, vomiting repeatedly, or eating a diet high in fat and low in carbohydrate.
Ketonuria is therefore not pathognomonic of diabetes but, if it is associated with glycosuria (glucose in the urine), the diagnosis of diabetes is highly likely
Measured in a lab
What is the clinical presentation of type 1 diabetes?
Polyuria (excessive urination), polydipsia (excessive thirst), and polyphagia (excessive eating), along with exhaustion, nausea, and blurred vision
What is the islet autoantibody test?
A blood test
Islet autoantibodies are markers that appear when insulin producing beta cells in pancreas are damaged.
Used to tell difference between type 1 (positive) and type 2 (will be negative)
What is the negative feedback loop pf glucose control?
What is health screening?
Tests of a healthy population to identify risk factors or early stages of disease.
It is different to using a test for diagnosis even if it is the same test
What are features of a good screening test?
- Simple
- Inexpensive
- Widely available
- Reliable (minimal false positives and negatives)
- Minimal discomfort
- There is a treatment for the disease being screened
- It will lead to improved health outcomes
What are the risks of health screening?
False reassurance with false negatives
Anxiety caused by false positives
Complications from follow up investigations
Overdiagnosis
What is overdiagnosis?
Where disease that would not have caused harm to people in their lifetime is detected.
More resources are used to treat the disease when it may not have shortened life expectancy.
What are the feastures of breast screening in the UK?
For women aged 50-70, every 3 years
Screening is a mammogram
Two views are taken- takes around 20-30mins.
What are the risk factors for breast cancer?
- Family history
- Obestiy post-menopause
- alcohol
- HRT
- inactivity
- Early pubery and late menopause (increased expsoure to oestrogen)
What reduces risk of breast cancer?
Pregnancy, especially an earlier one
Breast feeding
What is the clinical signs of breast cancer?
Lump in the breast
Skin changes
Lump or swelling in armpits
Change in appearance of nipple
Lymphadenopathy (changes in lymph nodes)
What are the conponents of a triple assessment done to a patient with suspected breast cancer?
What are the different treatment methods in treating breast cancer?
What are the main principles of breast cancer surgery?
Main principle is to do the least possible
Remove tumour with a margin of at least 1mm or normal tissue.
What are the main adjuvant therapies used in breast cancer?
Can give local radiotherapy
Chemotherapy
Can use drugs such as Trastuzumab-monoclonal antibody for HER2 positive patients or aromatase inhibitors for hormone receptor postive cancer.
What are common causes of breathlessness?
- Asthma
- COPD
- Heart failure
- Anaemia
- Bronchiectasis (widening of airways)
- Idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis
What components is the total lung volume made of?
Inspiratory reserve volume
Tidal volume
Expiratory reserve volume
Residual volume
How can asthma be diagnosed?
Using a spirometery whilst normal, and then repeating the test after taking a beta-agonist
What are FEV1 and FVC?
FEV1= the amount of air that can be breathed out in 1s
FVC= forced vital capacity, the volume of the lung
What will a spirometery graph look like for a normal, COPD and asthmatic patient?
What is the fractional exhaled nitric oxide test?
Used to diagnose asthma
Asthma is an autoimmune respiratory disease which causes airway inflammation; nitric oxide is produced by respiratory epithelium in response to inflammation
Can be measured in exhaled breath
Does not work in smokers
What is the treatment for asthma?
Smoking cessation, including those around you
Allergen avoidance
Weight loss
Reliever= beta-2 agonist
Preventer= inhaled corticosteroid
What is heart failure due to?
Due to impaired ability to fill or eject blood
What is atrial nutriuretic peptide?
It is released from the atria in response to stretch, this would occur with fluid overload (with LV is not ejecting enough blood, which increases pressure and stretch in LA)
Can be detected
Has a wide range of effects such as natriuresis (sodium loss through kidney), diuesis and lower blood pressure.
What are the biomarkers of heart failure?
Atrial natriuetic peptide
Brain-type natriuertic peptide
How is heart failure diagnosed?
Detected by presence of biomarkers
If these are elevated, confirmed by echocardiology
What does the echocardiology measure?
Compares the amount of blood in the ventricle before and after each contraction.
What is and what causes finger clubbing?
FINGER CLUBBING= increase in distal finger size, loss of nail bed angle, increased nail curvature
CAUSES= disease of the heart or lungs which cause chronically low blood levels of oxygen. Diseases which cause malabsorption, such as cystic fibrosis or celiac disease can also cause clubbing
What is cyanosis?
A bluish discolouration of skin or mucous membranes.
Caused by an increasenin concentration of deoxyhaemoglobin
Harder to see in dark skin tones- measured oxygen saturation much more reliable
What is the pathology of idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis?
It is a chronic, progressive fibrotic disorder.
Proliferation of mesenchymal cells causes increased production and deposition of disorganised collagen
Causes a stiffness of lungs and loss of normal alveolar-capillary interface
This causes V/Q mismatch and hypoxaemia
How is pulmonary fibrosis diagnosed?
Diagnosed by x-ray, CT chest scan and pulmonary function tests
In x-ray, diagnosed by shaggy and hard to spot edges of the lungs
Has a reduced FEV1/FVC ratio
What causes acute breathless?
Acute pulmonary oedema
Acute asthma or COPD
Pneumothroax
Pneumonia
Metabolic acidosis
Causes of a cough?
Asthma
Allergies
Cold, flu and pneumonia
COPD
pulomary fibrosis
Lung cancer
Common causes of haemoptysis?
Lung cancer
Pneumonia
bronchitis
Tuberculosis
What is the pathophysiology of asthma?
A chronic inflammatory disorder of the airway which is associated with airway hyper-responsiveness that leads to recurrent episodes of wheezing, breathlessness, chest tightness and coughing, particularly at night and in the early morning.
What is the pharmacological treatment of asthma?
There is a stepwise pattern:
- Mild asthma= short acting beta-2 agonist, e.g. salbutamol
- Regular anti-inflammatory therapy by inhaled glucocorticoids
- dose increase, long-acting beta-2 agonist
- Prednisolone therapy daily (steriods)
What is the treatment of an acute asthma attack?
High concentration oxygen
High doses of bronchodilators and systemic glucocortoids
What are the symptoms of an acute asthma attack?
Blood gases will show hypoxia
Peak expiratory flow is 33-50% of predicted
What is the peak expiratory flow?
PEF is the highest peak flow number a patient can achieve over a 2-3 week period when their asthma is under control.
What dose a hoarse cough with stridor indictate?
Partial obstruction of a major airway and it requires urgent treatment
What drug can cause patients to develop a cough?
Antiotensin-converting enzyme (ACE) inhibitors
What are the risk factors for COPD?
Tobacco smoke, coal dust exposure, age,
What is COPD?
Defined as a preventable and treatable disease characterised by persistent airflow limitation that is usually progressive and associated with an enhanced chronic inflammatory response in the airways and the lung to noxious particles or gases.
What is the pathophysiology of COPD?
It has both pulmonary and systemic components. The presence of airflow limitation combined with premature airway closure leads to gas trapping and hyperinflation, adversely affecting pulmonary and chest wall compliance.
What are the clinical features of COPD?
- breathlessness
- cough and associate sputum production
breath sounds are quiet
What investigations should be done in patients with COPD?
Spirometery used- FEV1/FVC < 70%
Chest x-ray must be used to rule out alternate diagnoses
What is the treatment of COPD?
Bronchodilator therapy needed. Long acting beta agonist and inhaled glucocortoid are given.
Exercise should be encouraged
Oral glucocorticoids can be used in exerbations
How is COPD severity measured?
The following CAN be used:
What is the process of carbohydrate digestion?
Carbohydrate digestion begins in the mouth with the mechanical action of chewing and the chemical action of salivary amylase. Carbohydrates are chemically broken down in the small intestine.
Carbs are broken down into glucose, maltose and lactose.
What is glucose used for in the body?
Through the below pathway, it creates energy for the body.
What is the structure of insulin?
It is a protein composed of two chains, an alpha and beta chain which are linked by sulfur atoms.
What factors regulate insulin secretion?
Blood glucose levels
Free fatty acids and amino acids
Hormones such as leptin and melatonin
When is glucose converted to fats?
When the glucose intake exceeds the body’s energy needs.
Acetyl CoA begins the process of fatty acid synthesis to triglycerides that are stored in the fat tissues of your body.
Regulated by insulin.
What is glucagon?
Glucagon is a hormone produced by alpha cells in the pancreas.
It’s role is to prevent blood sugar levels dropping
It does this by stimulating the conversion of stored glycogen (stored in the liver) to glucose and It promotes the production of glucose from amino acid molecules.
What does the blood pressure reading mean?
Systemic arterial blood pressure
Systolic / diastolic
Why is there two values for blood pressure?
Blood pressure varies throughout the cycle.
Systolic is when the heart contracts and diastolic is when it is relaxed
What is the water tower analogy related to blood pressure?
How can blood flow be calculated?
Q = P / R
Where Q= flow, P= change in pressure gradient and R= resistance
How is blood pressure controlled?
There are baroreceptors that sense short term ABP control. These send signals to brains and the autonomic nervous system sends them back.
The kidneys and the renin-angiotensin/ aldosterone system are longer term.
What is the difference between primary and secondary hypertension?
Secondary is the result of an underlying medical condition
Primary the cause is not known- 90% of cases
What can cause a high blood pressure?
- Exercising
- Failure of kidneys to excrete salt and water (kidney failure, use of NSAIDs)
- Sympathetic nervous system activated (high salt diet, stress, cocaine)
- RAAS system activated
- Confused sensors e.g. renal artery stenosis
What is hypertension?
A blood pressure that is high enough to cause disease
140/90 in most guidelines.
What are the long term consequences of hypertension?
- Stroke
- MI
- heart failure
- kidney failure
- retinopathy
What are the risk factors for hypertension?
BIO= genes for drug metabolism and salt excretion, existing co-morbidities, race
PSYCHO= stress, depression
SOCIAL= smoking, diet, economic status, education, engagement with healthcare
What lifestyle changes can made to intervene for hypertension?
Exercise
Lower potassium and salt intake
Fresh fruit consumption
Weight loss
What are the drugs used in anti-hypertensive therapies?
VASODILATORS= Calcium channel blockers, ACEi, alpha adrenergic receptor blocker
DIRURETICS= thiazides
What is the drug pathway that should be given to black African, type II diabetic or over 55 hypertensive patients?
What are common side effects of calcium channel blockers?
Ankle oedema
What is spironolactone?
Spironolactone is in a class of medications called aldosterone receptor antagonists. It causes the kidneys to eliminate unneeded water and sodium from the body into the urine but reduces the loss of potassium from the body.
Used to treat hypertension but also can cause hyperkalaemia
What are thiazides?
Thiazide diruretics are a class of drugs that inhibit the reabsorption of of luminal sodium in the distal convoluted tubule of the nephron (kidney)
Side effects inlcude hypoatraemia, hypokalaemia and hyperunaemia (can lead to gout).
What is a common side effect of all anti-hypertensive drugs?
Dizziness, which can lead to falls
Why is ambulatory and home measured blood pressure important to monitor?
Due to white coat hypertension, in a clinical practise may be higher.
Ambulatory can provide the ability to detect masked or white-coat hypertension, determine nocturnal blood pressure patterns, and evaluate the impact of antihypertensive treatment.
What are the 3 grades of hypertension?