week 1 Flashcards
what is aetiology
causes of disease
what is pathogenesis
how disease develops
what are symptoms
what patients notice
what are signs
doctor’s observations
what is homeostasis
maintenance of a relatively constant internal environment
- maintain optimum ‘similar’ conditions
what can failure of homeostasis result in
pathology
what does homeostasis require
integration of organ systems
- this requires regulation at cell, tissue and system level
what are common everyday challenges to our internal environment
- external temperature
- cellular access to nutrients
- exercise
what are the mechanisms to maintain homeostasis
- negative feedback (most important)
- feedforward
- positive feedback
what is negative feedback control
the condition that triggered the homeostatic response becomes switched off or removed by that response
e.g. person outside on hot day, loses body water by evaporation, body fluids become more concentrated, internal receptors sense change in internal concentration, thirst pathways stimulated and person seeks out and drinks water and body fluid concentration decreased
what are the characteristics of negative feedback control
- there is oscillation around the set point
- restores the regulated condition after its intitial disturbance but cannot prevent it happening
what is a feed forward system
in feedforward control additional receptors permit system to anticipate change and therefore activate response earlier
e.g. man outside on hot day, body pre-empts that body fluid concentration may decrease and so conserves water by producing more smaller volumes of concentrated urine
what are positive feedback mechanisms
- opposite effect of negative feedback
- positive feedback sets off a train of events that lead to an even greater disturbance
- common in pathology but rare in physiology
- e.g. nerve action potential and sexual behaviour
what are the homoestatically regulated processes that maintain water balance
- input is regulated by the thirst mechanism
- output is regulated by kidney function
- other processes that alter water balance are also regulated but their control is not aimed at maintaining water balance e.g. sweating
what are the compartments water is contained in in our bodies
- intracellular fluid
- interstitial fluid
- plasma
what is the barrier that separates plasma and interstitial fluid
blood vessel capillary wall
- permeable to everything but plasma protein and blood cells
what is the barrier between interstitial fluid and intracellular fluid
cell membrane
- selectively permeable
how many litres of plasma does the average man have
3 litres
how many litres of interstitial fluid does the average man have
11 litres
how many litres of intracellular fluid does the average man have
28 litres
what is the total body water of the average man
42 litres
how man litres of extracellular fluid does the average man have
14 litres
plasma + ISF
what is the difference between plasma and interstitial fluid
plasma contains plasma proteins and and blood cells which are to large to get through capillary
- other than that composition is identical
what are the three things to remember about the dilution principle
- c=m/v, v=m/c : dilution principle
- only plasma can be samples (so only compartments of which plasma is a component can be sampled directly - plasma, ECF, total body water)
- the nature of the barriers which separate components is crucial in determining the test substance (e.g. really the only barrier between plasma and ISF is for proteins and blood cells)
what techniques do you use for dilution principle in plasma
since plasma proteins cannot cross capillary walls, can use dues or radioactive labels that attach to plasma proteins
e.g. Evan’s blue or I25 albumin
what techniques do you use for dilution principle in extracellular volume
need something that freely crosses capillary walls but cannot cross cell membrane e.g insulin, sucrose, mannitol or 24Na+, 36Cl- which are actively extruded from cells
what techniques do you use for dilution principle in total body water
there is no barrier to water in the body so can use a loading does of heavy water/deuterated water (D2O)