Prac 10: Endocrine

Question 1

What kind of tumours can thymus C cells give rise to?

Answer 1

Parafollicular or C cells of the thyroid give rise to medullary carcinomas of the thyroid. These are a type of neuroendocrine tumour (the cells are neuroendocrine i.e. they have features of both secretory and neural cells) but they are also epithelial (i.e. they have features of differentiation of epithelia and they are secretory).

Question 2

What colour is a normal thyroid gland?

Answer 2

Red-brown (due to iodine and high vascularity)

Question 3

What are Hürthle cells?

Answer 3

The altered follicular epithelial cells with eosinophilic granular cytoplasm in Hashimotos disease

Question 4

How will a Hashimoto’s thyroid gland appear macroscopically?

Answer 4

Enlarged at first, eventually atrophic gland;
Cut surface: firm, tan-yellow (similar to lymph
nodes) pale (fibrotic), somewhat nodular
Incision like “cutting through an unripe pear”

Question 5

What is the pathological process underlying retinopathy in diabetic patients?

Answer 5

Diabetic microangiopathy

Question 6

What would be causing pain on walking 50m or more and absent dorsalis pedis pulses in a diabetic patient?

Answer 6

claudication (pain) due to atherosclerosis (both)

Question 7

What are the features of diabetic glomerular sclerosis(4)?

Answer 7

Diffuse thickening of the mesangium, thickened basement membrane, hyaline arteriolosclerosis of the arteriole and Kimmelstein-Wilson lesions (balls of glycosilated protein) within glomeruli.

Question 8

What will the Islets of Langerhans of a person with T2DM have deposited in them?

Answer 8

Amyloid

Question 9

What will the Islets of Langerhans of a person with T1DM have infiltrated into them?

Answer 9

Lymphocytes