AIMS AND LEARNING OUTCOMES

The main aim of General Pathology teaching is to provide students with basic knowledge on the following topics: i) causes of human diseases, ii) cell and tissue damage,iii) tissue response to damage (inflammation and repair) and iv) neoplastic disease.

At the end of the course, students will be able to classify the causes of human diseases; recognize the adaptation responses to damage; classify inflammatory processes; describe the atypia of the tumor cell; acquire basic medical terminology to describe the pathological processes taken into consideration.

TEACHING METHODS

The teaching is organized in frontal lessons for a total of 20 hours. Lessons are given by the teacher with the help of presentations that are made available to students on the web classroom. In periods of health emergency, lessons are held remotely using the TEAMS platform and are recorded by the teacher.

SYLLABUS/CONTENT

INTRODUCTION. Fields of interest of General Pathology. Homeostasis concept. Definition of morbid phenomenon, morbid process, morbid state and disease.

GENERAL ETIOLOGY. Causes of human diseases. Intrinsic causes. Gene, genomic and chromosomal mutations. Notes on congenital malformations. Concept of aplasia, agenesis and hypoplasia. Embriopathies and fetopathies.

Extrinsic causes of a physical nature. Radiation: classification based on nature (corpuscular and electromagnetic) and biological effect (ionizing and exciting). Direct and indirect effects of radiation. Extrinsic causes of a mechanical nature: trauma of superficial tissues. Trauma of the internal organs. Osteoarticular trauma. Concepts of regeneration and repair. Wound healing by first and second intention. Extrinsic causes of a thermal nature: burns and frostbite. Extrinsic chemical causes: alteration of pH (acids and bases), solvent action, denaturing action and toxic action. Defenses against poisons. Congenital and acquired defenses.

CELLULAR PATHOLOGY. Cell damage and death: necrosis and apoptosis. Damage adaptation responses. Atrophy. Hypertrophy and hyperplasia. Notes on the alterations of differentiation: metaplasia, dysplasia and anaplasia. Vacuolar degeneration. Fat degeneration. Protein accumulations.

INFLAMMATORY RESPONSE. Definition, causes, and phases of the inflammatory response. Classification of acute inflammations: serous, fibrinous, mucous, purulent, hemorrhagic, necrotic, allergic. Chronic inflammation: characters and cells of the chronic inflammatory infiltrate. Classification of chronic inflammations: interstitial and granulomatous. Immunological and non-immunological granulomas.

CANCERS. Definition of neoplasia: concepts of autonomy, afinalism and progression. Morphological atypia, biochemical and behavioral atypia. Metastases: definition, ways of metastasis, concept of organotropism. Molecular basis of tumors: oncogenes and tumor suppressors. Causes of tumors. Concept of initiation and promotion. Physical and chemical carcinogenic agents. Viral carcinogenesis. Classification of tumors: classification by behavior (benign and malignant); classification by histogenesis (epithelial and connective tissue tumors); classification by gradation and staging (TNM system).

RECOMMENDED READING/BIBLIOGRAPHY

Rubin E. and Reisner HM Patologia Generale-L'essenziale -Ediz Piccin-Vol. 1

G.M. Pontieri Patologia Generale, Edizioni Piccin

Lecture notes will be available on Aulaweb.