Applied Life Science NSY2122 Lecture 1

Applied Life Science - NSY2122, Lecture 1

• Course: Applied Life Science, NSY2122
• Lecturer: Dr. Katherine Rogers & Dr. Gillian Carter
• Module Coordinators: Dr Katherine Rogers and Dr Gillian Carter
• Date: October 2020
• Topic: Pathophysiology and Altered Cells

Prerequisite Reading & Review

• Revision: Review of year 1 material (cells, tissues, organs, fluid and electrolyte balance)
• Pre-reading Quiz: Attempt the pre-reading quiz on cells and cellular biochemistry
• Nursing Standard Papers: Complete reading of Nursing Standard papers (available on Canvas). These papers cover Cells and Cell Biochemistry, Genes, Chromosomes and DNA, and Cell, tissues, organs and systems.

Learning Outcomes

• Identify causes of disease
• Discuss disease development
• Understand cell environment changes causing disease
• Apply knowledge to clinical situations
• Additional Resources (Canvas): Supplementary materials on Canvas to aid understanding.

Introduction to Pathophysiology and Altered Cell Biology

• Pathophysiology: Changes in normal anatomy/physiology due to illness or disease, affecting body function.
• Altered Cell Biology: Gradual alterations in cell structure/function from external factors
• Disease: A condition where homeostasis is disrupted, with evident signs and symptoms.
• Illness: Departure from normal health, where the body adapts or responds to disease.
• Key message for treating disease: Finding the source of the problem, understanding the pathophysiology, and planning treatment to cure symptoms or alleviate them to improve quality of life.

Alterations to Normal Cell Function

• Cell Challenges: Cells face numerous challenges throughout their lifespan affecting normal function.
• Cell Adaptation: Cells adapt to threats to maintain functionality.
• Cell Reserve: Sufficient reserves allow cells to adapt, while insufficient reserve indicates cell death
• Disease Causes: All diseases cause damage to or injury to cells. This damage causes cells to stop working properly or leads to cell death.

Causes of Disease

• Aetiology: Disease causes involving cell injury when cells cannot maintain homeostasis
• Risk factors: Diseases often have multiple risk factors, many of which are modifiable. This knowledge is important for patient education and promotion of health.
• Adaptation: Adaptation may occur in cells due to aging, injury, or death. Importantly risk factors are modifiable and learning this reduces chance of disease.

What Happens to Make Things Go Wrong?

• Cell Injury: Cells respond to various forms of injury (toxins, infection, physical injury, deficits) in four types: toxins (T), infections (I), physical injury (P), deficit (I.D).
• Cell Degeneration: Occurs in active cells (e.g., liver, heart, kidneys), and the cytoplasm but not the nucleus.
• Cell Aging: Body systems experience aging, and structural and functional changes in cells, like decreased elasticity.
• Pathogenesis: The progression of disease development. Understanding pathogenesis to improve care management.

Changes to the Cell Environment

• Fluid Imbalance: Fluid deficit or excess.
• Electrolyte Imbalance: Disruption of electrolyte balance.
• Importance of Changes: Understand these changes to diagnose disease.

Fluid Imbalance

• Fluid Management: In patient care, it is important to monitor and maintain fluid balance and electrolytes.
• Dehydration: Loss of more fluid than replacement.
• Hypovolemia: Lower than normal volume of circulating fluid.
• Fluid Overload: Excessive fluid intake or circulatory problems leading to fluid accumulation.
• Oedema: Abnormal fluid accumulation in interstitial compartments.

Non-electrolytes

• Examples of non-electrolytes: Glucose, lipids, creatinine, urea, and albumin.

Electrolyte Imbalance

• Imbalance mechanisms: Electrolyte concentrations controlled by renal, hormonal, and neural processes
• Acid-base imbalance: Body maintains a very narrow range of pH. Respiratory and metabolic acid-base imbalances occur that are also controlled by renal and other functions.
• Sodium (Na+): Hyponatremia (low) and hypernatremia (high)
• Potassium (K+): Hyperkalemia (high) and hypokalemia (low)
• Other Electrolytes: Calcium, phosphate, and magnesium are important electrolytes

Maintaining Stable Cell Environment

• Monitoring: Essential to monitor the cell environment for changes.
• Homeostasis: Maintaining a stable and balanced internal environment (physiological equilibrium).
• Dynamic Adaptations: The body continuously adjusts to external and internal environmental changes.
• Reporting changes: reporting and adaptive changes to maintain homeostasis

Review of Today's Lecture

• Disease & Illness: Understanding adaptive changes and disease mechanisms.
• Mechanisms of Disease: Understanding pathogenesis, or the development of disease.
• Changes to the Cell Environment: Include fluid, electrolyte, sodium, and non-electrolyte imbalances.

Key Take-Home Message

• Cell Fundamentals: Cells are crucial building blocks of the body.
• Problem Solving: Pathophysiology requires understanding problems at cellular and tissue levels.

Additional Learning Activities

• Workshop Instructions: How to structure and engage in group workshops.
• Practice: Use provided templates and examples for practice.