Medical Diagnosis Review

What is the definition of a biomarker?

Which of these are examples of molecular biomarkers?

Which of these are examples of radiographic biomarkers?

What type of biomarker reflects biochemical or molecular alterations in cells, tissues, or fluids?

What type of biomarker involves measurements of body processes?

Medical imaging techniques can only produce pictures of the structures inside your body.

Which of these is NOT a main type of imaging used in modern medicine?

What type of imaging uses a beam of X-rays that spins around an object to create a detailed image?

What type of imaging uses powerful magnets to create detailed images of the body's tissues?

What type of imaging uses sound waves to create images of the body's internal structures?

What type of imaging uses radioactive tracers to create images that show how organs and tissues are functioning?

X-ray radiography can be used to create images of soft tissues, such as skin and organs.

X-ray radiography works by transferring the results of the X-ray onto a film, showing the parts of the body that absorbed the waves (the bones) in black and leaving the unabsorbed materials in white.

What are devices used to measure the flux, spatial distribution, spectrum, and/or other properties of X-rays?

MRI uses magnets to force protons in the body to align with the magnetic field, and when a radiofrequency current is pulsed through the patient, the protons are stimulated and spin out of equilibrium, straining against the pull of the magnetic field.

MRI sensors detect the energy released as the protons realign with the magnetic field, and the time it takes for the protons to realign with the magnetic field, as well as the amount of energy released, changes depending on the environment and the chemical nature of the molecules.

Ultrasound transducers can only emit ultrasound waves.

What are the special ceramic crystal materials called that ultrasound transducers are often made of?

Ultrasound scanners use the speed of sound and the time of each echo's return to calculate the distance from the transducer to the tissue boundary.

Nuclear medicine imaging uses radioactive tracers to produce images by detecting radiation from different parts of the body.

Nuclear medicine is mainly used to look inside the digestive or circulatory systems.

What type of imaging is most beneficial for creating high-resolution images of the brain or other internal tissues?

What type of imaging is often used to create images of bone structures to look for breakages?

What type of imaging is used to create images of fetuses in the womb and to take images of internal organs when high resolution is not necessary?

Molecular biomarkers are molecules that indicate normal or abnormal processes taking place in the body.

Which of these are examples of small molecule biomarkers?

Which of these are examples of nucleic acid biomarkers?

Which of these are examples of protein biomarkers?

Which of these is NOT a main source of molecular biomarkers?

What is the most popular type of immunoassay technique?

PCR is a method that amplifies a target DNA region by making millions to billions of copies.

The goal of PCR is to make enough of a target DNA region to be analyzed or used in some other way.

PCR is a two-step process that is carried out in repeated cycles.

In PCR, the initial step involves heating the starting material to a high temperature to separate the two strands of the DNA molecule.

During the annealing step of PCR, the temperature is reduced to allow primers to anneal to the DNA template.

The final step in PCR involves adding nucleotides onto the ends of the annealed primers, extending the DNA strands.

Each cycle of PCR doubles the number of DNA copies.

PCR is typically run for 10-15 cycles, resulting in a sufficient amount of DNA.

Real-time PCR monitors the amplification of a targeted DNA molecule during the PCR, not at its end.

In real-time PCR, the PCR products are visualized on agarose gel to determine their size and relative quantity.

Real-time detection in real-time PCR is enabled by the inclusion of a fluorescent reporter molecule in each reaction well.

The change in fluorescence over time in real-time PCR is used to calculate the amount of amplicon produced in each cycle?

QPCR is used to detect, characterize, and quantify nucleic acids for numerous applications.

In reverse transcription qPCR, RNA transcripts are quantified by first reverse transcribing them into cDNA.

QPCR is carried out in the same manner as standard PCR, except for the addition of fluorescent labeling.

The use of fluorescent labeling in qPCR enables the collection of data as PCR progresses, allowing for more detailed analysis of the amplification process.

ELISA is a gold standard method for detecting and measuring the presence of antibodies in the blood.

ELISA can be used to detect and estimate the levels of tumor markers in the blood.

ELISA can be used to detect and estimate hormone levels in the blood, such as pregnancy hormones.

QPCR is a gold standard method for detecting and quantifying bacterial and fungal pathogens in clinical microbiology.

QPCR has applications in oncology and gene expression studies, such as the analysis of cancer cells and neurodegenerative diseases.

Gold-standard diagnostic techniques, while highly sensitive and specific, can be complex, time-consuming, and expensive.

The complexity and cost of gold-standard diagnostic techniques can limit their widespread application, particularly in resource-poor settings.

Rapid tests and point-of-care diagnostic approaches have been developed to address the challenges posed by traditional gold-standard diagnostic techniques.