Medical Interventions Exam Review

These are key exam questions for preparing for the medical interventions end of they year exam.

What is a medical intervention?

Anything that is used to treat, prevent, cure, or relieve the symptoms of human suffering whether it is caused by a disease, accident, or something as simple as hygiene. A measure to improve health or alter the course of an illness and can be used to prevent, diagnose, and treat disease.

What are the mains categories of interventions that function to maintain human health?

Genetics, pharmacology, diagnostics, surgery, immunology, medical devices and rehabilitation

How do scientists gather evidence during the potential outbreak of an infectious disease?

Linking symptoms together and tying them to suspected disease-causing agents.

What is bioinformatics?

The collection, classification, storage, and analysis of biochemical and biological information using computers, can be used to identify disease pathogens

How can DNA sequences be used to identify disease pathogens?

Scanning the DNA of something to figure out what the heck it is.

What is an antigen?

A type of protein found on the outside of every living cell (and virus!). Surface markers that cells use to identify each other. How your body knows that your body cells are truly yours, and they are how your body identifies cells and viruses that aren’t yours.

How do antibodies identify and inactivate antigens?

Produced by a type of leukocyte called a B lymphocyte. The job of antibodies is to attach to foreign antigens. By attaching, those foreign antigens are neutralized. That attachment also signals other types of leukocytes (T lymphocytes) to come in and destroy whatever the antibody is attached to.

How can the ELISA assay be used to detect disease?

A test that takes advantage of some of the body’s natural immune responses to identify the presence of illness. Color changes mean a positive result, with stronger colors meaning more of whatever you’re testing for is present.

Why is it important for doctors to know the concentration of disease antigen present in a patient’s system?

It can help doctors determine how much antibiotic to give, how long care will be needed, and how it is that permanent damage will result.

What steps do scientists take to diagnose, treat, and prevent future spread of a disease outbreak?

Studying symptoms of disease, detecting disease, making diagnoses, administering treatments, studying the after-effects, and finding ways to prevent diseases from happening all together

How do antibiotics work to fight bacterial infections?

Disrupting the pathways that bacteria use to survive.

What methods do bacteria use to share antibiotic resistant genes?

Transduction, transformation, and conjugation.

What actions are humans taking that are contributing to bacteria becoming resistant to commonly used antibiotics?

Overprescription and overuse of antibiotics.

How do frequency and amplitude affect how humans interpret sound?

Intensity (loudness) which is measured in decibels. Frequency and amplitude.

What causes different types of hearing loss?

Problems with one or more structures within the ear.

How is hearing loss diagnosed?

Rinne test, speech in noise test, and audiograms.

What interventions are available for patients with hearing loss?

Hearing aids and cochlear implants.

What are the bioethical concerns related to the use of cochlear implant technology?

Because the procedure is very expensive, may result in complete hearing loss, and is offensive to the deaf community as an infringement on their lifestyle, it remains somewhat controversial.

What is vaccination?

An injection of dead, weakened, or modified pathogens into the body. Their presence in the body activates the immune system, which responds to the substances within the vaccine the same way it responds to any other infection: by activating lymphocytes, producing antibodies, and then remembering that disease for a very long time.

How does a vaccine activate the body’s immune system?

Antigens in the material contained in the vaccine cause the body to produce antibodies. A specialized type of lymphocyte referred to as a memory cell will remain long after the “infection” is cleared out, and will be able to rapidly produce antibodies when you are exposed to the true infection.

How has vaccination impacted disease trends in our country?

It has eliminated smallpox and polio, in this country and many others; it keeps us from getting the flu; it is even used to protect us from certain types of cancer, such as HPV.

What methods are used to produce vaccines in the laboratory?

Similar pathogen, attenuated virus, a killed vaccine, toxoid vaccine, a subunit vaccine, and naked-DNA vaccine.

What is recombinant DNA technology?

Modifying DNA by adding or removing genes, placing this modified DNA into an organism, and letting that organism replicate.

What are the molecular tools used to assemble recombinant DNA?

Selection of a gene of interest, removing the gene, and ligating genes into double-stranded DNA.

How can recombinant DNA and bacterial cells be used to produce vaccines?

The DNA is put into a cell using a chemical or electrical shock that makes the bacteria porous enough for the plasmid to enter. Heat shock is then used to seal the cell up again, with the plasmid inside.

How can engineered plasmids be inserted into bacterial cells?

Chemical or electrical shock that makes the bacteria porous enough for the plasmid to enter. Heat shock is then used to seal the cell up again, with the plasmid inside.

What is epidemiology?

The study of disease, and epidemiologists are dedicated medical professionals at the heart of the public health field, monitor the health of populations and search for patterns in disease.

How can epidemiologists assist with the detection, prevention, and treatment of both chronic and infectious disease?

They may assist in outbreak investigations or they may examine lifestyle factors and their relationship to chronic illnesses such as heart disease, diabetes, and cancer.

What is genetic testing?

The use of molecular methods (DNA sequencing with BLAST, karyotyping, etc.) to determine if someone has a genetic disorder, will develop one, or is a carrier of a genetic illness.

What are the duties of a genetic counselor?

A trained professional who helps individuals and families understand and adjust to a genetic diagnosis or the possibility of having a hereditary disorder.

What is the goal of PCR?

Produces multiple copies of a specific DNA sequence.

What are the steps of the PCR process?

Denaturation, annealing, and extension.

What is the relationship between phenotype and genotype?

The genotype, what is written in our DNA, predicts phenotype, what we see as a result of that code.

What are SNPs?

Tiny differences in the DNA of individuals that make them unique. They are 1-nucleotide differences in the DNA.

How can restriction enzymes and electrophoresis be used to identify SNPs and determine genotype?

Molecular scissors that recognize specific DNA sequences and cut the nucleotide strands.

What medical interventions and lifestyle modifications can help a pregnant woman have a healthy pregnancy?

Exercise, healthy diet, prenatal vitamins, and monitor eating habits.

What can amniocentesis and chorionic villus sampling tell a couple about their developing fetus?

Whether or not a DNA-based problem is present.

How can genetic diseases be cured if scientists could replace faulty genes?

A type of disease treatment in which faulty genes are replaced by functional copies.

What vectors can be used to transfer DNA to human cells?

Retroviruses, adenoviruses, adeno-associated viruses, herpes simplex viruses, liposomes, and naked DNA.

How might gene therapy open the door to genetic enhancement?

Has the potential for this to be abused in the process of genetic enhancement.

What medical interventions are available for couples who would like to choose the gender of their child?

Sperm sorting and preimplantation genetic diagnosis.

Should parents be able to design their children?

It leads to designer babies.

What is the difference between reproductive cloning and therapeutic cloning?

Reproductive cloning is cloning to make a copy of an individual. Therapeutic cloning, which involves making a clone of a certain body part, like the kidney or the arm.

What are some of the ethical dilemmas surrounding current and future reproductive technology?

Is it okay to make any choices for future generations or must everything only address the health of someone already alive?

What fundamental characteristics do all cancers have in common?

Cancer cells are abnormal cells in which the processes that regulate normal cell division are damaged. Genes that would normally regulate cell behavior are mutated.

In what ways are diagnostic imaging technologies used to diagnose and treat disorders?

To produce images of the inside of the body to diagnose and treat many disorders.

What do DNA microarrays measure?

The use of DNA microarray technology measure the gene expression differences in good/healthy cells and in cancerous cells.

How is DNA microarray technology used to determine the differences in gene expression between different tissue samples?

The computer then combines the images resulting in varied shades of red, green, as well as yellow. This gives data about gene expression in healthy tissue and cancer tissue from the same patient.

How are the similarities of gene expression patterns between different individuals calculated?

By observing and comparing colors. Also these differences can be calculated mathematically.

In what ways do different risk factors increase the chance that a person will develop cancer?

They alter the DNA in our cells.

How can lifestyle changes reduce the risk for developing cancer?

By avoid toxins, don’t smoke or drink large quantities of alcohol, make healthy choices – applying common sense to your health.

How can molecular tests be used to detect inherited genetic mutations associated with certain cancers?

Molecular tests are used to detect the presence of the abnormal gene if it exists in the individual so preventative measures can be taken.

How can viruses lead to cancer?

Chemicals, UV, age, etc. can cause changes at the DNA (gene) level – or people can just be born with the wrong genes.

What is the importance of routine cancer screenings?

The hope behind screenings is to detect cancer early if it is present so it can be treated; the earlier cancer is detected, the better the chances get for survival.

What can a cancer patient receiving chemotherapy and/or radiation therapy expect during treatment?

Chemotherapy and/or radiation therapy.

How is biofeedback therapy used to help patients improve their health or manage pain?

It can help people to beat back their pain and cope with life on less drugs.

In what ways do artificial limbs allow patients who have suffered from the loss of a limb regain lost function?

It allows patients more freedom and independence than they would have without it.

How do advances in technology allow for the development of artificial limbs that look and move like actual human limbs?

Technology allows muscles of the back, chest, and abdomen to “talk” to prosthetics and to allow actual movement. This means people are able to do tasks that they could not do before this technology.

How do physical and occupational therapists help patients with disabilities or patients recovering from surgery or injury?

Physical and occupational therapists helps the person relearn ADLs, or activities of daily living.

Why do some drugs affect individuals in different ways?

Because understanding a patient’s SNP profile will allow doctors to predict how a patient will react to a particular drug.

How can information in our genes affect how our bodies interact with certain medications?

It can treat so the medicine will be more effective for treating this disease.

How are clinical trials set up to ensure all data collected is valid and that all human subjects are treated ethically?

Ethical treatment of people.

How might Nanomedicine change the future of medicine?

Offers promise in the fight against cancer and is likely to revolutionize cancer prevention, diagnosis, and treatment.

What role does insulin play in diabetes?

Often the pancreas either stops producing, or there is no recognition of it. The role of the pancreas within the human body is to release insulin.

How has technology changed diabetes diagnoses overtime.

Previously, using the insulin of animals, now we’re using engineered

How can bacterial be used produce protiens like insulin.

A procedure where DNA is implanted into living organisms.

What is bacterial transformation?

This will allow only human gene. This is known as bacterial transformation.