Handbook : Unit informationEdith Cowan University

Faculty of Health, Engineering and Science

School: Medical 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

  The Biology of Human Disease

• Unit Code

  SCH3227

• Year

  2015

• Enrolment Period

  1

• Version

  1

• Credit Points

  15

• Full Year Unit

  N

• Mode of Delivery

  On Campus
  

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Description

This unit examines the principles and mechanisms of the disease process. The various components and interactions of the body's defense 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.

Prerequisite Rule

Students must pass 1 units from SCH1134, SCH1143

Equivalent Rule

Unit was previously coded SCH2337

Learning Outcomes

On completion of this unit students should be able to:

1. Critically analyse major environmental agents (including air pollution, chemicals/drugs and physical agents) which are involved in disease processes.
2. Critically analyse the role of inflammation and repair in the reaction of living tissue to injury.
3. Evaluate the responses of the body to infection and understand the immunologic mechanisms of tissue injury.
4. Explain neoplastic and non-neoplastic cellular proliferation.
5. Explain the effects of disruption of blood supply and body fluid imbalance.
6. Investigate the continuum of function and structure of the cell from normal, through injury, adaption and/or death.
7. Investigate the role of diet and nutrition in the development of, and susceptibility to, disease.

Unit Content

1. Cell injury and adaptation - causes of cellular injury, death and adaptation, pathogenesis, morphology of cell injury, intracellular accumulations, sub-cellular alterations, cellular adaptations, calcification, hyaline change.
2. Fluid and haemodynamic derangement - oedema, congestion, haemorrhage, thrombosis, embolism, infarction, shock.
3. Haematopoietic and lymphoid pathology - blood loss anaemia, haemolytic anaemia, anaemias of diminished erythropoiesis, lymphomas, leukaemias and myeloproliferative diseases, disorders of coagulation, infectious mononucleosis, histiocytoses.
4. Inflammation - acute inflammation, chronic inflammation, morphological patterns of inflammation, role of lymphatics, lymphoid tissue and mononuclear-phagocytic system, immunologic mechanisms, clinical manifestations of inflammation.
5. Neoplasia - hyperplasia, metaplasia, dysplasia, nomenclature, characteristics of benign and malignant neoplasms, grading and staging of cancer, attributes of transformed cells, carcinogenic agents (including environmental agents) and their cellular interactions, unifying theory of carcinogenesis.
6. Nutritional disorders - protein-calorie malnutrition, vitamin deficiencies, trace elements, obesity, diet and cancer in humans with particular reference to indigenous and migrant populations.
7. Overview of pathology, health versus disease in different populations, investigation of disease, methods in pathology, classification of disease, ageing and disease.
8. Repair - parenchymal regeneration, repair by connective tissue, bone repair, collagenization and wound strength, cellular mechanisms of repair, overview of inflammatory-reparative response, factors modifying inflammatory-reparative response.
9. Vascular pathology - arteriosclerosis, atherosclerosis, vasculitis, aneurysms, venous disorders, lymphatic disorders, tumours.

Additional Learning Experience Information

This course is divided into an 8-week block with 4 contact hours per week (lectures, tutorials, laboratory sessions), and a 5-week block during which students engage with online materials. In laboratory classes, students work independently and in small groups to plan, organize and run experiments. Each student will also prepare a literature review on a particular research topic, and present the review to the class using powerpoint. Guidance on the preparation of a literature review, and use of powerpoint, will be given in the first laboratory session. Blackboard will be utilised to disseminate required materials.

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.

Text References

• ^ Rubin, R., & Strayer, D.S. (2012). Rubins's pathology: Clinicopathologic foundations of medicine (6th ed.). Baltimore, Philadelphia: Wolters Kluwer/Lippincott Williams & Wilkins.
• Porth, C.M. (2010). Pathophysiology, concepts of altered health states (8th). Philadelphia: Lippincott Williams & Wilkins.
• Porth, C.M. (2007). Essentials of pathophysiology (2nd). Philadelphia: Lippincott Williams & Wilkins.
• Rubin, E., & Reisner, H.M. (2009). Essentials of Rubin's pathology (5th ed.). Wolters Kluwer/Lippincott Williams & Wilkins.
• Ahmed, N., Dawson, M., Smith, C., & Wood, E. (2007). Biology of disease (1st ed.). Taylor and Francis.
• Craft, J., Gordon, C., & Tiziani, A. (2011). Understanding pathophysiology (1st ed.). Mosby Elsevier.

^ Mandatory reference

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