Pathophysio

• Pathophysiology


  Physiologia (nature, science) + Pathos (disease, pain, suffering)
• Pathophysiology and other subjects of undergraduate medical education

  • Biology - pathological processes begin frequently at the cell level
  • Anatomy and histology - macro- and microstructural properties of the human body is essential for understanding their pathology
  • Biochemistry - biochemical processes are changed under pathological condition
  • Biophysics - biophysical properties of cells, tissues and organs determine their structural and functional characteristics
  • Physiology - firstly, we have to understand the functions of the healthy tissues, organs and systems of the body, than we are able to distinguish pathological functions
  • Pathological anatomy - to understand the microstructural and macrostructural changes under pathological conditions helps to understand functional changes and vice versa
  • Microbiology and immunology - the subject help us to understand of the mechanisms involved in development of disease caused mainly by biologic noxas and disorders of immune system
  • Pharmacology - PaPhy enables the doctor to treat diseases rationally (causally)
  • Clinical subjects - PaPhy is a theory of disease, clinic is medical practice
  • Humanistic subjects (psychology, ethics, sociology, antropology...) - psychologic and social factors play an important role in disease development
• Position of Pathophysiology in Undergraduate Medical Education

  • It becomes an integrative biomedical subject
  • It becomes a bridge between the subjects of sciences and clinical medicine
  • It is an important part of undergraduate medical education
• Main Tasks of Pathophysiology

  • To teach mechanisms of diseases
  • To help to understand the substance of health
  • To help students to understand the logic of life under pathological conditions
• Thanks to pathophysiology the (medical) student can understand the inner logic of the pathological processes, their relationships, and their biological significance. On this basis student is able, as a result, to built an individual model of disease in a given patient.
• General Pathophysiology


  Deals with general pathologic processes, and pathomechanisms that are involved in pathogenesis of more than one disease. It also contain explanation of some basic medical terms.
• Nosology


  Systematically describes the specific type of disease and this is the base for creation classification system of diseases
• Pathogenesis of disease processes can not be reduced to only quantitative changes of structures, functions and mechanisms presenting in healthy. It is necessary to take into account development of qualitatively new processes, which are harmful for the body structure and functions.
• Vicious circle


  A complex of events that reinforces itself through a feedback loop toward greater instability
• Hippocrates (460-370 BC) was the first to construct theories of the causes of disease based on what he had observed in his patients. His fundamental truth: "there are two factors acting alone or in combination which cause illness – the intrinsic or constitutional make-up of the person, and an extrinsic or environmental agent", is still valid.
• Once normal functions of the body had been described it was but a step to investigate states of disease (from the end of 16th century)
• C. Bernard (1813-1878)


  Introduction to experimental medicine (1865)
• Research at the Department of Pathophysiology is devoted to research on PaPhy of respiratory system, especially to defensive mechanisms of the airways and lungs, and to visceral neurophysiology and PaPhy
• Main Aims of Teaching Pathophysiology

  • Students should understand fundamental general and specific pathomechanisms involved in onset, development and ending of diseases. To fulfil this aim is necessary:
  • To know and understand pathophysiological terms
  • To know and understand essential pathomechanisms
  • To connect separate pathomechanisms to rational pathogenetic network characteristic for different pathological processes
  • To understand a pathologic process as event which influence the whole body
  • To understand pathomechanizms as dynamic events
• Roles of Students and Teachers in Teaching Process

  • Student has to study, not simply memorise facts
  • Individual study and seminars should be focused to obtain lasting knowledge on pathophysiology
  • Teacher will help students with creation of complex view on pathogenesis of diseases
• Pathology


  Study of disease
• Network characteristic


  For different pathological processes
• Pathologic process


  Event which influences the whole body
• Pathomechanisms


  Dynamic events
• Role of students in teaching process

  • Study, not simply memorise facts
  • Individual study and seminars should be focused to obtain lasting knowledge on pathophysiology
• Role of teachers in teaching process

  • Help students with creation of complex view on pathogenesis of diseases
• Lasting knowledge


  Understanding of the pathomechanisms (Understanding is a kind of ecstasy)
• Introduction to pathophysiology


  • Mechanisms of Disease
  • Diagnosis & Treatment
  • Inflammation & Healing
• Pathogenesis


  The development of a disease
• Stages of disease development

  • Incubation
  • Disease
  • Convalescence
• Pathophysiology


  The study of the functional changes associated with a specific disease
• Subjective findings


  The patient's symptoms, described by the patient
• Objective findings


  Health provider's findings, the physical exam
• Incidence


  Number of new cases per unit of time
• Prevalence


  Number of new and old cases per unit of time
• Diagnosis


  Identification of a specific disease (clinicals and diagnostics)
• Etiology


  Cause of the disease
• Types of etiology


  • Idiopathic (unknown cause)
  • Iatrogenic (caused by human intervention)
• Congenital diseases


  Diseases occurring at birth
• Pathogenesis


  Development of the disease
• Onset of a disease

  • Acute (sudden, short term)
  • Insidious (gradual progression with vague symptoms)
  • Chronic (milder condition developing gradually, long term, more permanent damage)
  • Subclinical (pathologic changes occur but no manifestations)
• Latent


  Silent stage, no clinical signs evident
• Prodromal


  Early development of the disease when one is aware of a change in the body but the signs are nonspecific
• Manifestations


  Clinical evidence, local or systemic
• Lesions


  Specific local change in the tissue