Case 14 Flashcards
(103 cards)
What are component causes?
Factors that work together with the necessary cause to produce disease.
Overcrowding and TB
What is a necessary cause?
A factor that must be present for a disease to occur.
What is a sufficient cause?
A combination of factors that is sufficient to cause disease in at least some people
Levels of causation: upstream factors
Social - gender, race, SES
Population: income inequality, lack of social cohesion, inadequate medical services
Levels of causation: downstream factors
Physiological: genetics, sex, age
Behavioural: smoking, diet, exercise, alcohol
Ecological model: levels of causation
Biological
Behavioural
Societal
Structural
Evidence based practice
Assess your patient Ask the right question Access the evidence Appraise the evidence Apply the evidence Audit your clinical practice
Which study designs are best for evaluating potential harms?
Case reports can’t draw generalisable conclusions
Case control prone to bias and confounding
Trials not useful for long term effects
Cohort studies with a large representative sample, objective measures of exposure and outcome and good long term follow up are good
Systematic reviews of all the good evidence are best
Is an apparent association real?
Bias?
Confounding?
Chance?
Is the association causal? Bradford Hill
Bradford hill criteria
Does cause precede effect? What is the strength of the effect? Is there a dose-response effect? Is there biological plausibility? Has the effect been consistently shown in similar studies in different populations?
Acute leukaemia non-specific presenting features
Unwell Tired Aches and pains Fever Often little to find on exam but may have bleeding, sepsis, pallor
NB if symptoms persist/get worse
Acute leukaemia specific features
Bone marrow infiltration: anaemia, bleeding, infections
Tissue infiltration: gum hypertrophy, lymphadenopathy, splenomegaly, CNS disease (ALL)
Tests used toc lassify acute leukaemia
Morphology (peripheral blood and bone marrow) Cytochemistry Immunophenotype ( flow cytometry) Genetic abnormalities (FISH, PCR)
Leukaemia initial diagnosis
FBC
Differential count
Morphological review of peripheral blood slide
Leukaemia definitive diagnosis
Bone marrow aspirate/trephine biopsy
Aspirate provides cells for cytogentic/molecular studies
Leukaemia additional non-diagnostic tests
LP to exclude CNS disease
HIV test
DIC screen
Electrolytes and renal function
Supportive therapy
Packed red cell transfusion for anaemia
Platelet transfusion for thrombocytopaenia
Hydration and allopurinol for tumour lysis syndrome
Prevention and treatment of infections
Anti emetics to prevent chemo-associated nausea
Primary lymphoid organs
Bone marrow
Thymus
Main Th1 cytokines
IL-2, TNF beta, IFN gamma
Cell mediated response
Main Th2 cytokines
IL-4, IL-10
Antibody response
A chromosomal translocation may result in
Fusion protein product
Aberrant expression of normal protein
Karyotype analysis
Direct morphological observation of chromosomes under a microscope
Requires cells to be in metaphase
Therefore cell culture is performed before analysis
FISH
Uses fluorecent-labelled genetic probes which hybridize to different parts of the genome and allow visualization of karyotype abnormalities
How is acute leukaemia defined?
> 20% blasts in blood or BM at presentation