READ ME / 1: Introduction to Endocrine

Question 1

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Question 2

The questions are written using the official Dundee lectures, so you might find it useful to have them open in the background in case you get stuck.

Question 3

I write the questions based on what I think the important facts are, but not everything is relevant. Don’t waste your time learning tiny details.

Question 4

On the other hand, this isn’t everything you need to know - back it up with stuff from tutorials, other people’s questions, Youtube videos, Oxford handbooks etc.

Question 5

There’s a good chance that older decks will be inaccurate (lectures and guidelines change year to year) so I’ll try to update them in the future.

Break a leg 👍

Question 6

What is endocrinology?

Answer 6

Medical specialty associated with internal / hormonal secretions and their physiological and pathological effects

Question 7

Endocrinology is all about glands and ___.

Answer 7

hormones

Question 8

What is a hormone?

Answer 8

A chemical messenger, produced by an organ, which is released into the blood and transported to distal tissues to cause a response

Question 9

What are

a) paracrine
b) autocrine
c) intracrine hormones?

Answer 9

a) Paracrine - communication between adjacent cells

b) Autocrine - communication with the same cell

c) Intracrine - communication within the same cell

Question 10

The symptoms of endocrine diseases are caused by hormone ___ or hormone ___.

Answer 10

hormone excess

hormone deficiency

Question 11

Apart from hormone excess and deficiency, larger endocrine tumours may exert ___ on organs, causing symptoms of disease.

Answer 11

pressure

Question 12

What sort of tests are carried out for suspected

a) deficiency disease
b) excess disease?

Answer 12

a) Suspected deficiency - stimulation test

b) Suspected excess - suppression test

Question 13

What are the three basic types of hormone?

Answer 13

Protein/peptide hormones

Steroid hormones

Tyrosine derivatives

Question 14

Which endocrine glands are at “the top of the chain” when it comes to stimulating other glands?

Answer 14

Hypothalamus
Pituitary gland

produce hormones which influence other endocrine glands and target tissues

Question 15

Most endocrine glands are regulated by which feedback mechanism?

Answer 15

Negative feedback

Question 16

In some endocrine diseases, the ___ of the target cells to hormone may change.

Answer 16

sensitivity

Question 17

What are the two broad types of endocrine tumour?

Answer 17

Functioning - causing hypersecretion of hormone

Non-functioning - destroys gland leading to hyposecretion of hormone

Question 18

A lot of endocrine diseases have a ___ component.

Answer 18

genetic