Acute Inflammatory Disease - Case Study

Running head: CASE STUDY 1
Case Study
Name of the Student
Name of the University
Author Note

CASE STUDY 2
Question no. 1
People suffering from acute inflammatory disease or Cronh’s disease undergoes rapid weight
loss. This weight loss can be an indication of malnutrition caused by insufficient uptake of
calories. Also there is excessive fluid loss from the patient body owing to diarrhea or
intestinal bleeding(Cohen, 2011). Moreover, people with Crohn’s disease have less or poor
apetite, they do not feel the urge to eat. The patient was suffering from malabsorption and had
difficulty in maintaining their weight even if they consumed enough food, since his body is
unable to breakdown the food properly, utilizing the nutrients. Malabsorption lead to diarrhea
or bloating. The patient also developed food aversion which caused a sensation of pain while
eating. That is why, the patient used to avoid eating in order to avoid the pain or unpleasant
experience, thus leading to weight loss. Moreover, since Jordan was not being able to keep up
with his work, he remained depressed and refused to eat. The side effects of medications can
trigger a loss of appetite in the patient, since the medications are found to change the taste
sensation of the , making the person less interested in eating. Besides, the abdominal pain and
nausea reduced Jordan’s apetite which resulted in insufficient calorie intake. Rectal bleeding
from ulcer in the intestine leads to deficiency of iron, leading to anemia followed by severe
weight loss and weakness. Jordan was also diagnosed with perianal abscess or anal fistula
which reults in the leakage of bacteria into the abdomen, forming a collection of pus through
a process known as abdominal sepsis. As a result, there is less absorption of nutients and
calories in the body, which led to malnourishment and subsequent weight loss of Jordan.
Jordan had poor skin turgor due to severe fluid loss from the body. Mild dehydration occurs
when there is a fluid loss of 5% of the body weight whereas, severe dehydration accounts for
15% or more loss of total body weight.

CASE STUDY 3
Question no. 2
The “Pain pathway” consist of three separate orders of neurons which are involved in
carrying the action potential signal responsible for pain. The “first order” neurones are also
called pseudounipolar neurones which have cell body and ganglion at the dorsal root region.
The “second order” neurons have cell bodies which are found in the spinal cord or within the
cranial nerves. The cell body of the “third order” neuron lies within the ventral posterolateral
nucleus of the thalamus(Blanco, Rodriguez & Vadivelu, 2018). The first order neurons
consist of specialized receptors called nociceptors which are present at the nerve endings of
the primary afferent neuron, also called unencapsulated cutaneous receptors. These receptors
transduce the signal of pain when a specific region of the skin gets stimulated. They can be
found in skin, joints, muscles and bones. There are three types of nociceptors: mechanical
nociceptors helps in detecting sharp and intensive pain, thermal and mechano-thermal
nociceptors helps in detecting sensation which gives a burning or cold sensation and
polymodal nociceptors can detect mechanical, chemical and thermal sensations.
Morphine directly shows its activity on the opioid receptors, which is a type of “G-protein
coupled receptor”(GPCR) and helps in modulation of pain in the nervous system. The opioid
receptors are present mainly in the brain and spinal cord, it binds with a compound named
encephalin to control pain. Morphin mimics the structure of encephalin and binds itself with
the opioid receptors and triggers a series of events. It activates GPCR , which increases the
rate of conduction through potassium channel, and decreases the rate of conduction through
calcium channel, followed by adenylyl cyclase inhibition. Together, these modulations
interferes with the transmission of pain signal to the nervous system(Nealon et al, 2018).