Wound Healing Lecture Notes.
Wound Healing Lecture Notes Learning outcomes At the end of the module the student will * Have a basic understanding of the process of wound healing * Recognise the difference between primary and secondary healing * Be aware of factors influencing wound healing and of potential complications * Relate the physiology of the wound healing process to nursing care Definition of wound healing 'A cut or abrasion in the continuity of any tissue. It is a visible result of individual cell death or damage, and can be classified by size, depth and cause' Questions to consider - how big is the wound? How much surface area does it involve? Does this have implications for patient in terms of fluid loss/loss of mobility/pain? How deep is the wound? Does this have implications for fluid loss/pain/loss of mobility? What types of tissue are affected? Epithelial/muscle/bone etc What caused the wound? Clean cut/surgical incision/burn/scald/abrasion/clean or dirty? Wound Healing It is very important for nurses to understand the process of wound healing so that they can effectively assess the wound and implement wound care towards the goal of promoting healing and preventing delayed healing. The nurse needs to provide the ideal environment for the wound, both locally at the wound site, and systemically (throughout the body, taking a holistic approach) Patient Factors which affect
Function of the heart.
Function of the heart General structural and functional aspects The blood within a human body can only perform its many important roles if it is being continually circulated around the body. The organ that performs this process is the heart, which continually pumps blood through the organs and keeps the whole system running. The average human heart will beat up to 100 000 times a day and pumps between 5 - 20 litres of blood a minute depending on what you are doing. Blood from all of the body travels to the heart through veins, and is pumped back into the body through arteries. This circulation of blood brings oxygen and nourishment to the liver, kidneys, and all other parts of the body, which is an essential process to maintain efficient running of all organs. The circulation also performs the action of carrying waste products away including carbon dioxide. The heart is divided into a left and a right side by walls called the atrial septum and the ventricular septum. Each side of the heart has two chambers, one large vein and two valves allowing the blood to only go in one direction. The two upper chambers of the heart are called the left and right Atria. The atria chambers receive the blood that is coming into the heart through the veins, and then passes it through a valve to the lower thickly walled chambers called the left and right ventricles it is then pumped back
Many discoveries made in the 19th century led to great advances in diagnosis and treatment of disease and in surgical methods.
Many discoveries made in the 19th century led to great advances in diagnosis and treatment of disease and in surgical methods. Diagnostic procedures for chest disorders were advanced to an extent in the 18th century by the method of percussion first described by the Austrian doctor Leopold Auenbrugger von Auenbrugg in 1761. His work was ignored, however, until 1808, when it was publicized in a French translation by the personal doctor to Napoleon. In about 1819 the French doctor René Théophile Hyacinthe Laënnec invented the stethoscope, still the most useful single tool of the doctor. A number of brilliant British clinicians assimilated the new methods of diagnosing diseases, with the result that their names have become familiar through their identification with commonly recognized diseases. The doctor Thomas Addison discovered the disorder of the adrenal glands now known as Addison's disease; Richard Bright diagnosed nephritis, or Bright's disease; Thomas Hodgkin described a malignant disease of lymphatic tissue now known as Hodgkin's disease; the surgeon and palaeontologist James Parkinson described the chronic nervous disease called Parkinson's disease; and the Irish doctor Robert James Graves diagnosed exophthalmic, or toxic, goitre, sometimes called Graves's disease. European Discoveries Medicine is indebted to German universities for the scientific discoveries that
An Examination of the Human Brain: Evidence of Neuroplasticity and Neurogenesis
An Examination of the Human Brain: Evidence of Neuroplasticity and Neurogenesis My eyes snapped open even though I was scared of the sight in front of me. I watched my sister convulse and desperately gasp for air. Her eyes frantically darted up and down while all the blood drained from her face, turning it a pale pasty blue. That was only on the outside; inside her brain, a multitude of neurons was firing signals abnormally to cause the epileptic seizure. A life time of epilepsy would eventually lead to brain cell loss which was once thought to be irreversible; however, new research reveals that the connections and the number of neurons in the brain are not fixed. In the field of neuroscience, it was a long held belief that humans are born with their full set of neurons and that neurogenesis is impossible after birth. Recent studies disprove this deeply embedded doctrine-Ramon and Cajal's hypothesis that neurogenesis occurs exclusively during prenatal development. An examination of hemispherectomy patients, the brain in periods of learning, and brains with Huntington's disease reveals the extent of the brain's plasticity. These examples will give insight and a more extensive understanding of the capacity and function of the human brain. Both of these aspects are interconnected and strongly linked to the brain's neuroplasticity, including neurogenesis as an important
A new drug is thought to have profound cardiovascular effects. Discuss how you would assess its effe
A new drug is thought to have profound cardiovascular effects. Discuss how you would assess its effe The least invasive method of measuring arterial blood pressure is to use a sphygmomanometer. This is a pneumatic device for measuring the arterial pressure indirectly by allowing a controlled occlusion of the underlying artery. However, the results obtained by this measurement are discontinuous and so if the drug had a rapid onset and/or short duration of action the technique might miss the drug's effects altogether, or miss its peak action. It is far better to use a continuous technique such as the insertion of a cannula, attached to a strain gauge manometer, into an artery. The strain gauge manometer uses a membrane of very small mass, which avoids the problem of inertia found in U-tube manometers. When the membrane is displaced an electrical signal is produced proportional to the blood pressure. The advantage of this technique is that it measures small or rapid changes very accurately. With this method there are two sources of error: effects on pressure due to gravity and the kinetic energy of the blood. The effect of gravity is avoided by setting a "zero" level for the manometer, arbitrarily at heart level, and by making a note of any changes in the patient's posture. The effect of the blood's kinetic energy can be avoided by ensuring that the tip of the cannula is always
The Ras Superfamily
The Ras Superfamily: Ubiquitous Regulators of Cell Function Monomeric GTPase Ras proteins control many cellular activities and functions. They fluctuate from an inactive GDP containing state to an active GTP containing state, and this activation is lost due to the GTPase activity of the protein. They are very potent transducers of signals, and therefore this ability to transfuse signals is tightly controlled by other adaptor proteins, such as Guanine nucleotide exchange factors (GEFs), and GTPase activating proteins (GAPs). Loss of such control leads to hyperactivation or loss of ability in certain cellular functions, such as cellular growth, migration, and vesicular transport. This has been found commonly in human cancers, and novel treatments may require targeting the pathways and molecules discussed in this dissertation. The Ras superfamily is a group of monomeric GTPase proteins which all share common features in structure and activity with Ras, a protein discovered in 1977 in association with transformed rat cells. The variants then discovered were named H-Ras, and K-Ras, and the third Ras isoform was discovered shortly after in 1983, and was called N-Ras.1-3 These are encoded by 3 proto-oncogenes, H-RAS, K-RAS and N-RAS, and selective cleavage of K-RAS's product gives rise to 2 proteins, K-Ras4A, and K-Ras4B.4-6 There have since been over 150 further 'Ras-like'
Eight Journal abstracts demonstrating Gene Knock Theory
Eight Journal abstracts demonstrating Gene Knock Theory .Improved methods for the generation of human gene knockout and knockin cell lines Ozlem Topaloglu, Paula J. Hurley, Ozlem Yildirim, Curt I. Civin1,2 and Fred Bunz* Department of Radiation Oncology and Molecular Radiation Sciences, The Sidney Kimmel Comprehensive Cancer Center, The Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine Baltimore, MD 21231, USA 1Department of Oncology, The Sidney Kimmel Comprehensive Cancer Center, The Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine Baltimore, MD 21231, USA 2Department of Pediatrics, The Sidney Kimmel Comprehensive Cancer Center, The Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine Baltimore, MD 21231, USA Received August 11, 2005. Revised September 26, 2005. Accepted September 26, 2005. Recent studies have demonstrated the utility of recombinant adeno-associated viral (rAAV) vectors in the generation of human knockout cell lines. The efficiency with which such cell lines can be generated using rAAV, in comparison with more extensively described plasmid-based approaches, has not been directly tested. In this report, we demonstrate that targeting constructs delivered by rAAV vectors were nearly 25-fold more efficient than transfected plasmids that target the same exon. In addition, we describe a novel vector configuration which we term the synthetic exon promoter trap (SEPT). This
Discuss the use of ACE and Angiotensin 2 receptor blockers in diabetic nephropathy. Is there a role for a double blockade?
Discuss the use of ACE and Angiotensin 2 receptor blockers in diabetic nephropathy. Is there a role for a double blockade? What is diabetic nephropathy? Diabetic nephropathy can be defined as a microvascular complication of diabetes marked by albuminuria and a deteriorating course from normal renal function to end-stage renal disease (ESRD). Diabetes is a disease which is caused by the inadequate production of insulin by the body or by the body not being able to properly use the insulin that is produced thereby resulting in hyperglycaemia. The high glucose and other abnormalities of diabetes may lead to kidney damage known as diabetic nephropathy. There are two main types of diabetes, type I, which is insulin dependent, and type II, which is non-insulin dependent. Type 2 diabetes is characterised by insulin resistance, i.e., the failure to respond to normal concentrations of insulin1. Type 1 diabetes is when the body no longer makes insulin. Diabetic nephropathy occurs in 30-40% of all diabetic patients and has become the leading cause of end stage renal disease in the western world2. Persistent albuminuria is the hallmark of diabetic nephropathy, which can be diagnosed in the presence of diabetic retinopathy but in the absence of any clinical or laboratory evidence of other kidney or renal tract diseases 3-6. This definition is valid in-patients with either type 1 or type
Anatomical pathology lecture 3 Pleurisy - inflamed pleura Components of acute inflammation
Anatomical pathology lecture 3 * Pleurisy - inflamed pleura * Components of acute inflammation: . vascular an increase in, but relatively static flow of blood (redness, heat) 2. cellular an increase in the number of cells and sometimes haemorrhage (swelling) 3. exudate a protein rich, plasma-like fluid containing fibrinogen which converts to fibrin (swelling, pain, loss of function) * cells of acute inflammation: polymorphs and macrophages * polymorph - alias polymorphonuclear leucocyte, poly, neutrophil or granulocytes. All blood granulocytes are composed of 80% neutrophils 10% eosinophils and 1% basophils. * Macrophages are large scavenger cell, synonymous with tissue histiocyte or > In blood - monocyte > In liver - Kupffer cell > In brain - microglia > Coalesce to form > Epithelioid cells and later giant cells * Post acute injury event sequence . momentary arteriolar constriction 2. dilation of small vessels 3. increased permeability of small vessel walls 4. escape of protein rich exudate fluid - oedema 5. haemoconcentration, slowing of blood dynamics 6. margination of leucocytes, along endothelium 7. leucocyte emigration & diapedesis of red blood cells 8. chemotaxis of polymorphs 9. phagocytosis by and lysis of polymorphs 0. arrival of phagocytic macrophages * chemotaxis - chemotropism, attraction to a chemical stimulus and movement toward that
The Change Of Heart Rate During Respiration.
Physiology The Change Of Heart Rate During Respiration Philip Masters Extended Year Introduction The heart is one of the most important organs in the body. There are numerous factors which affect its function. These include, lifestyle, e.g. smoking, drinking, exercise (or lack of), diet, stress, environment. The stronger the heart is, the easier it can circulate the blood needed to live a healthy life. The human body has approximately 60,000 miles of blood vessels, which act as pathways to oxygenate the body's tissues and unburden them of waste. If the heart is weak it has to work overtime to accomplish these tasks while a conditioned heart can force more blood throughout the body than weaker hearts. At rest, strong hearts do not need to beat as fast due to the fact that each beat is more forceful, whereas the weaker heart needs to pump quicker and more often to maintain adequate blood flow, this is one reason for an elevated blood pressure. A normal heart rate is about 72 beats per minute (bpm). For those who exercise, that figure can reduce to below 60 bpm. This means a well-conditioned person can save a minimum of 12 heart beats each minute, 720 beats each hour, 17,280 beats each day, 518,400 beats each month, and 6,307,200 beats each year. This experiment will record the heartbeat of a human subject by means of an electrocardiograph, and observe the effects on