Week 7 - Immune System Flashcards
What are some relevant nursing actions?
- Aseptic technique
- Blood transfusion safety
- Checking allergy status of patient
- Observing for inflammation, pressure area care, wound assessment and dressing
- Administration of antibiotics.
What are innate defences?
Present from birth and provide protection against a broad range of pathogens
Is the skin in the First line (External defences) or Second line (Localise)
First line
Is the Sebum in the First line (External defences) or Second line (Localise)
First line
Is the Dendritic Cells in the First line (External defences) or Second line (Localise)
First and Second line
Is the Interferon in the First line (External defences) or Second line (Localise)
Second line
Is the Natural Killer Cells in the First line (External defences) or Second line (Localise)
Second line
Is the Fever in the First line (External defences) or Second line (Localise)
Second line
Is the Phagocytes in the First line (External defences) or Second line (Localise)
Second line
Is the Complement in the First line (External defences) or Second line (Localise)
Second line
Is the Mucous Membranes in the First line (External defences) or Second line (Localise)
First line
Is the Gastric Juice in the First line (External defences) or Second line (Localise)
First line
Is the Microbiota in the First line (External defences) or Second line (Localise)
First and Second line
Is the Salivary Lysosomes in the First line (External defences) or Second line (Localise)
First line
Is Inflammation in the First line (External defences) or Second line (Localise)
Second line
Provide examples of how the patients’ skin can be bypassed by microorganisms.
- Injection
- Pressure Injuries
- Wounds
Provide examples of how the patients’ mucous membranes can be bypassed by microorganisms.
- Nasogastric tube, suctioning tracheostomy
- Urethral catheter, suprapubic catheter
- Ileostomy, colostomy, PEG tube
Provide examples of how the patients other can be bypassed by microorganisms.
- Antibiotics
- Immunosuppressants
- Steroids
Identify how nurses physically increase their first line of defence against microorganisms
Personal protective equipment (PPE)
Define reverse barrier nursing
Protect patient from microorganism of nurse
Describe the function of a pyrexia (fever)
- Pathogens prefer 37 degrees
- Increased body temp inhibits pathogen reproduction
- Promotes interferon activity
- Increased rate of repair and metabolic reactions
Describe the physiology of these classic signs of inflammation - Redness and Heat
- Local vasodilation
- More blood, leukocytes and heat
Describe the physiology of these classic signs of inflammation - Swelling and Pain
- Blood capillaries leak, more fluid and components into area
- Compress veins
- Encourages fluid, debris and pathogens into lymphatics
What is Adaptive Devences (3rd line)
- Body adapts to its experiences with pathogens. - It is antigen specific, systemic and has a memory. - Composed of humoral and cellular immunity.
What is Humoral Immunity
Provides a defence against pathogens in our extracellular fluids (body humors)
State the role(s) of the B lymphocytes (B cells) in the humoral immune response
- Destroy extracellular pathogens
- B cells -> plasma cells (release antibodies) -> memory cells
Describe the primary humoral response
Plasma cells and memory cells made on first exposure to antigen
Describe the secondary humoral response
New plasma cells made from existing memory cells on second exposure to the some antigen
More lives have been saved by vaccination than antibiotics. Vaccination is the administration of a dead or disabled (attenuated) pathogen (antigen) or production of a pathogens’ protein (via mRNA or DNA vaccine) to stimulate an immune response (immunisation).
1. State whether this immunisation process is an example of active or passive immunity
- Active
- Exposure to antigen stimulates formation of memory cells
Antibodies do not destroy antigens directly. They inactivate and tag antigens for destruction by other means
1. Name the three main defensive mechanisms initiated by antibodies.
- Neutralisation
- Agglutination and thus precipitation
- Complement activation
What is Cellular Immunity?
Provides a defence against intracellular pathogens and abnormal cells
State the role(s) of the T lymphocytes (T cells) in the immune response
Destroy intracellular pathogens (foreign antigens inside our body cells) and cancer cells
Name the two main types of T cells
- Cytotoxic
- Helper
Describe how cytotoxic (killer T) cells destroy infected and cancerous cells
- Insert toxic chemicals
- (perforin, granzymes, interferons)
Applying a dressing to a wound is mimicking which defence strategy
Skin
Identified by redness, swelling, pain and heat at the site of infection
Inflammatory Response
Causes an increase in the metabolic rate which speeds up tissue repair
Fever
Stimulates uninfected cells to produce a protective antiviral protein
Interferon
Substances that can provoke an immune response
Antigens
The mucous lining of the intestine functions as a food source for the microbiota and protective layer of the immune defences (innate and adaptive). However, poor lifestyle choices compromise this mucous and facilitate the entry of microorganisms, endotoxins and undigested food into the blood via the intracellular spaces (leaky gut). In a healthy digestive tract, the columnar epithelial cells of the intestinal lining are secured together by ______.
Tight Junctions
State the function of an antigen presenting cell (APC)
Phagocytosis
- Then display antigenic fragments on plasma membrane
State the role of a helper T cell
- Active in humoral and cellular immunity
- Secretes interleukins that coordinate immune response
List five statements about the innate defences
- Present from birth, act non-specifically, locally and fast
- Epidermal dendritic cells connect the innate with the adaptive defenses
- Urinary catheters cross the patients’ first line of defense
- Localised inflammation is an attempt to contain potential pathogens
- Neutrophils secrete a killing zone of toxic chemicals and extracellular traps
List five statements about the adaptive defences
- Adapts to its experience with pathogens, is antigen specific, systemic, has a memory
- Effective immunisation provokes an active immune response
- Antigen presenting cells phagocytose and display antigens to T cells
- Major histocompatibility complex (MHC) proteins are genetically determined
- Regulatory T cells suppress the activities of the B and T cells
