Endocrine Mystery Cases: In this exercise you will be playing the role of \"endo
ID: 3473793 • Letter: E
Question
Endocrine Mystery Cases: In this exercise you will be playing the role of "endocrine detective" to solve various endocrine mysteries. In each case you will have a victim who has suddenly fallen ill with a mysterious malady. You will be presented with a set of "witnesses", each of whom will give you a clue as to the nature of the illness. Other clues will come from samples that you will send off to the lab for analysis. You will solve the mystery by providing the victim with a diagnosis. Case 1: The Cold Colonel You are called upon to visit the ailing Col. Lemon. Before you see him, you speak with three witnesses who were with him when he fell ill. Witness statements Ms. Magenta: "Colonel Lemon has been hot-blooded for as long as I've known him. But I noticed that he couldn't seem to keep warm. He kept complaining about being cold...." Mr. Olive: "Just between you and me, I've noticed that the old chap has put on quite a bit of weight lately." Professor Purple: "The Colonel and I used to go on major expeditions together. Now he just doesn't seem to have the energy to do much of anything: What are your initial thoughts about the witnesses' statements? Does one hormone come to mind that may be the cause? You see the Colonel and collect some blood to send off to the lab. The analysis comes back as follows: T3 (triiodothyronine): 50ng/dl (normal: 110-230 ng/dl) T4 (thyroxine): 1.1ug/dl (normal: 4-11 ug/dl) TSH (thyroid-stimulating hormone): 86 pU/ml (normal: 2-10 uU/ml) Analyze the results. Why are the T3 and T4 low and the TSH high? What is your final diagnosis? Explain.Explanation / Answer
By looking at the witness statements, there seems to be misfunctioning of Thyroid gland. The thyroid gland works to maintain body temperature, muscle strength and energy levels and also maintainng weight of the body. Thyroid gland works by releasing Triiodothyronine (T3) and Thyroxine (T4) hormones in the body. The symptoms as described by the witnesses above appear when the levels of T3 and T4 hormones are low in the body. When T3 and T4 are low in the body, then the hypothalamus produces TSH Releasing Hormone (TRH) that signals the pituitary to direct the thyroid gland to produce more (or less, as required by the body) of T3 and T4 hormones by either increasing or decreasing the release of a hormone called thyroid stimulating hormone (TSH).
Hence the final diagnosis should be - Mr. Colonel is suffering from hypothyroidism.
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