Handbook : Unit informationEdith Cowan University

School: Medical and Health Sciences

This unit information may be updated and amended immediately prior to semester. To ensure you have the correct outline, please check it again at the beginning of semester.

• Unit Title

  Introduction to Pathophysiology

• Unit Code

  SCH1104

• Year

  2017

• Enrolment Period

  2

• Version

  1

• Credit Points

  15

• Full Year Unit

  N

• Mode of Delivery

  On Campus
  

• Unit Coordinator

  A/Prof Peter ROBERTS

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Description

This unit examines the concepts of health and disease in human populations and the principles and mechanisms of the disease processes. The various components and interactions of the body's defence system and the relationship of environmental factors to the disease process are considered. The morphology, pathogenesis and clinical course of diseases are considered in detail.

Equivalent Rule

Unit was previously coded PST1105

Learning Outcomes

On completion of this unit students should be able to:

1. Critically analyse the continuum of function and structure of the cell from normal, through injury, adaptation and/or death.
2. Critically analyse the effects of disruption of blood supply and body fluid imbalance and how this applies to conditions such as myocardial infarctions and stroke.
3. Debate the role of the above in the health of indigenous and non-indigenous peoples.
4. Explain neoplastic and non-neoplastic cellular proliferation.
5. Explain the responses of the body to infection and understand how the body's immune system responds to tissue injury that results.
6. Explain the role played by epidemiological studies in investigating disease in populations.
7. Investigate agents (including chemicals/drugs and physical agents) which are involved in disease processes.
8. Predict the role of inflammation and repair in the reaction of living tissue to injury.

Unit Content

1. Causes of cellular injury, death and adaptation, pathogenesis, morphology of cell injury, intracellular accumulations, subcellular alterations, cellular adaptations, calcification.
2. Fluid and haemodynamic derangement - oedema, congestion, haemorrhage, thrombosis, embolism, infarction, shock.
3. Inflammation - acute and chronic inflammation, patterns of inflammation, role of lymphatics, lymphoid tissue and mononuclear-phagocytic system, immune regulation, clinical manifestations of inflammation.
4. Neoplasia - hyperplasia, metaplasia, dysplasia, characteristics of benign and malignant neoplasms and how these cause diseases affecting reproductive, urinary, endocrine, gastrointestinal and integumentary systems.
5. Repair - parenchymal regeneration, repair by connective tissue, bone repair, collagenisation and wound strength, cellular mechanisms of repair, overview of inflammatory-reparative response, factors modifying inflammatory-reparative response.
6. Systemic pathophysiology of the respiratory, cardiac, neural and musculoskeletal systems.
7. Vascular pathology - arteriosclerosis, vasculitis, aneurysms, venous disorders, lymphatic disorders, tumours.
8. What is pathophysiology, health versus disease, mechanisms of disease, methods in pathophysiology, disease patterns in human populations, health and disease in indigenous and migrant populations in Australia.

Additional Learning Experience Information

Lectures, tutorials, student research seminars using powerpoint and hands on laboratory sessions with students working in small groups/pairs.

Assessment

GS1 GRADING SCHEMA 1 Used for standard coursework units

Students please note: The marks and grades received by students on assessments may be subject to further moderation. All marks and grades are to be considered provisional until endorsed by the relevant Board of Examiners.

Core Reading(s)

• Rubin, R., Strayer, D. S., & Rubin, E. (2012). Rubins pathology: Clinicopathologic foundations of medicine (6th ed.). Philadelphia: Wolters Kluwer/Lippincott Williams & Wilkins.

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