The Immune System in Detail – Angelica Dizon

• The Immune System Revealed
  • Explore the inner workings of the immune system, like you’ve never heard it before!
• Inflammation: The Center of Attention
  • How the inflammatory response works and what you can do to assess and treat complications
• Inflammation Out of Control
  • Sepsis, allergies, organ rejection, and anaphylactic reactions: the symptoms and how to treat the complications
• Common Immune Disorders
  • Treat and Prevent Autoimmune disease, HIV, and antibiotic resistant bacteria

If you could master only one concept during your career, it should be the inflammatory response.

• Do you care for patients with:
• Cardiac disorders?
• Respiratory disorders?
• Gastrointestinal disorders?
• Neurological disorders?
• Infection, cancer, or immunosuppression?

Inflammation is responsible for many of the disease processes that we treat; it is the primary response for healing and protecting the body from injury. In order to provide extraordinary care for your patients, you must understand the inflammatory response.

Although the inflammatory response is incredibly complex, the results of inflammation can be broken down into three major events: 1) vasodilation, 2) capillary permeability, and 3) clotting. The results of these events are what cause the problems we associate with many different conditions such as septic shock, ARDS, atherosclerosis, and many others. But, the lack of a response can be just as devastating – exposing the body to a myriad of deadly infections.

Learn how to manage patients with inflammation, and those whose inflammatory response is inhibited, by mastering the anatomy, physiology, and pathophysiology of inflammatory and immune responses.

If you’ve had trouble with these concepts in the past, then this is the program for you! You will get the detail you need – explained at a level that you will fully understand.

OUTLINE

Immunity: Overview and Definitions

• Self versus nonself
• Role of antigens (Immunogens)

The Immune System

• Lymphoid (Immune) system
• Structure and function
• Biological role of C system

Major Histocompatibility Complex

• Classes of MHC antigens
• Role of MHC antigens in transplants and autoimmunity
• Autoimmunity

The Immune Response: Putting it all together

• Afferent limb
• Efferent limbs
• Goal of afferent and efferent is to react with the immunogen and render it inactive
• Primary response
• Secondary responses
• Types of immunity
• Hypersensitivity reactions
• Immunodeficiency disorders

Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV)

Organ-Specific Autoimmune Disease

• Idiopathic thrombocytopenia purpura (ITP)
• Multiple Sclerosis
• Guillain-Barré Syndrome
• Myasthenia Gravis
• Rheumatic fever
• Addison’s disease
• Type I Diabetes Mellitus
• Good pasture syndrome

Systemic Autoimmune Disease

• Systemic Lupus Erythematosus
• Rheumatoid Arthritis
• Progressive Systemic
• Sclerosis (scleroderma)

Serum Sickness

• Exposure to penicillin and sulfonamides

ABO Blood Group Antigens

• Blood typing
• Rh factor

Diagnostic Tests

• Urine studies
• Radioisotope studies
• CT and MRI
• Biopsies
• Laboratory studies

Inflammatory Reaction

• Gross features of acute inflammation
• Fluid aspects of inflammation
• Cellular aspects of inflammation
• Mediation of inflammation
• Types of leukocytes

Patterns of Inflammation

• Acute
• Chronic
• Noncellular exudates
• Cellular exudates

Factors Affecting Inflammation and Healing

• Impaired circulation
• Decreased leukocytes in the circulating blood
• Drug inhibitory effects
• Malnourishment
• Poor approximation of wound edges

Shock and Multi-organ Dysfunction

• Definitions (Exhibit A)
• Stages of shock
• Treatment measures for shock

Antibiotic-Resistant Organisms

• Organisms develop resistance to classic agents and newer agents
• Genetic and biochemical mutations to evade pharmacology
• Inappropriate use of antibiotic is a major factor contributing to resistance

OBJECTIVES

• Identify mechanisms of the first line of immune defense.
• List several types of leukocytes and their functions.
• Explain the function of immunological memory.
• Describe the three main components of the inflammatory response.
• Summarize inflammatory response to major illness.
• Discuss patient care needs associated with selected immune disorders.