Case 2: The Bloated Mrs. Blanc Your next call is to the home of Mrs. Blanx. As b

Question

Case 2: The Bloated Mrs. Blanc Your next call is to the home of Mrs. Blanx. As before, you have three witnesss to interview. Witmess statements a Ms. Magrnt "letween you and me, she's really let herelf go. Sthe has fat deponits im all of these strange placcs like aroand her face and trunk, goodt and a weird hump on her back. If you ask me, some ex 1 Col. LemoN: "Not that I want to talk about such things, but she's seemed b told me that her blood pessure has gone up!" Ms. Feather:" inimune system needs boosting, But my herbal teas don't seem to help. eated, a bit swollen, latcly, She even The poor dear. Shes been sick so much lately with all kinds of infections. Personally, I think her What are your initial thoughts, hbased upon the witnesses' statements? Dxes one hormosne produce these effects? Your next step is to speak with Mrs, Blanc. During the interview you notice a botle of pills on ber nightstand. You log the pills as evidence and send them off to the lab for analysis. The lab repoet shows the pills to be the medication prednisone, which you know to be a glucocorticoid similar to the hormone cortisol, Is this finding sigsificam? Why or why not? 16 Based upon the witness statements and the laboratory analysis, what is your final diagnosis? Explain your reasoning 43 6 Exploring Anatomy & Physiology in the Laboratory

Explanation / Answer

The initial thoughts are that Mrs.Blanc is overweight and suffering from some metabolic disorder.

The hormone that comes into mind is cortisol. High cortisol levels in the body result in rapid weight gain, specially in the face ,chest and abdomen. High blood pressure and osteoporesis along with mood swings and anxiety are other symptoms of high cortisol level in the blood.

* Yes this finding is significant because this might be the reason for the condition that Mrs.Blanc is suffering from. Taking glucocorticoids, which is a type of steroid. must have resulted in the occurance of the symptoms. She must have thought that taking glucocorticoids might reduce the "swelling " in her body.

* The final diagnosis can be that the patient is suffering from Cushing's syndrome. She has swelling in her back , a condition known as 'buffalo hump'. Fat deposite all over the body has resulted in obesity. Since medications like glucocorticoids are known to cause this disease in people, specially women, we can be confident in our diagnosis of this disease.

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