WHAT IS DISEASE OR PATHOLOGY?
Ø Diseases
o Dynamic
o Ever-changing interaction between injury to body and bodies response to injury
o Something
... [Show More] interrupts normal function
o Next step is bodies response to injury
o Infectious injury à immune response
o Physical injury à inflammation response
o Observable consequences of this interaction of injury and bodies response
§ Example: someone walks in feeling nauseous, thirsty à all observable,
recordable consequences
Ø How can you tell when someone is in a disease state?
o Evaluate someone for observable changes and then figure out what might be
going on
o Compare what we get in labs and physical data to what is normal
o Sample population to figure out an average and a range to get a NORM
§ At the center, the mean, is around where normal is
o NO SUCH THING AS AN EXACT NORMAL VALUE
§ Normal is relative
Ø Pathology
o Out of normal structure or function
o Some kind of abnormality in structure or function
CONCEPT OF “NORMAL”
Ø Sources of Variation
o Genetics
§ Some people may have lower body temperature but normal for them
§ Sickle cell
§ Diabetes
o Age
§ Often changes value of normality
¥ Ex: renal fx declines with age
¥ Cardiac
¥ Neuro à mental status
¥ Hormones à menopause
o Gender
§ Differ by biological sex
Pathophysiology Unit 1 & 2
2
¥ Ex: hemoglobin, RBC
o Situational
§ Ex: RBC can be higher in Denver than in NYC who are at sea-level
§ Radiation
o Time
§ Done at different times yield different results sometimes
§ Sun-downing
o Laboratory Conditions
§ Methods used to determine assay of a sample can differ between labs
LANGUAGE OF DISEASE
Ø Etiology
o CAUSE of disease
Ø Pathogenesis
o INTERACTION between that injury and bodies response
Ø Clinical Manifestations
o OBSERVABLE consequences
§ Signs vs. Symptoms
Ø Ideologies
o Intrinsic
§ Inherited
§ Autoimmune diseases
§ Nutritional deficiencies
§ Psychogenic
o Extrinsic
§ Infectious sources
§ Animate
§ Iatrogenic injuries come from hospitals (medical care)
¥ Unintended injuries that come from medical care
¥ Bedsores
Ø Idiopathic = Cause of disease NOT KNOWN [Show Less]