Hello Kidney/Bladder

Rawr

OMG, I'm back online! Hope everyone had a good Thanksgiving!

We started the renal block yesterday and what better way to kick off some studying with something I'm absolutely obsessed with? It's been a while since I was a little kid and yet I still collect Hello Kitty things...

I kind of stole the Hello Kidney idea from someone else, but hopefully I put a little spin on things by adding the Hello Bladder. 

Destroying Angel Mushroom

Toad is practically Super Mario's slave.

Head's up: there won't be any new posts this week. Why? It's Thanksgiving week and I've convinced myself that I'm allowed to be lazy.

I'm never sure why people decide to go mushroom hunting. I know the organic craze has its merits, but I wouldn't want to die from eating so fresh from nature. The Destroying Angel is of the genus Amanita and contains a toxin that will shut down your liver and kidneys. I say: avoid white mushrooms. 

Toxic Megacolon

Also known as the Chernobyl Colon, Poisonous Poo-chute, Septic Shi...

Lactose Intolerance

"So give me coffee and TV" - Blur

You might remember the music video to "Coffee & TV" by Blur or you might not. If you do, you'll probably recall a milk carton walking around town trying to locate Graham Coxon (Blur's guitarist).

And speaking of milk, milk contains lactose, a disaccharide of glucose and galactose. People usually develop an intolerance to lactose because of the absence of the lactase persistence SNP (single nucleotide polymorphism). Lactose intolerance also becomes more common as we age, and can be secondary to a number of syndromes/diseases that disrupt the GI mucosa. Use the lactose-hydrogen breath test to diagnose!

Entamoeba Histolytica

Most people who collect vinyl wear scrotum-crushing tight jeans.

If you're from California, and like the music and independent scene, and are more often than not annoyingly pretentious, you've probably been to the Amoeba Music record store. The one in Hollywood is a bit of a dump, and I'm still bitter that I stood there futilely waiting to see a free Franz Ferdinand gig.

Anyway, onto real amoebas. Entamoeba histolytica is the type amoeba you want to get if you're interested in a getting dysentery (compare that to Entamoeba dispar which doesn't cause dysentery). Sometimes they might affect the liver, creating an abscess, which on aspiration supposedly looks like "anchovy paste". Their virulence factors lyse WBCs, so if you're digging around in the stool and place it under a microscope, you won't find white blood cells hanging around! 

Pancreas!

A tribute to Lichtenstein

I'm probably the only one who thinks the pancreas looks like a gun.

On dissection it looks like mush.

Salmonella

I asked for a Double Down and all I got was a drumstick with sprinkles.

Salmonella! A gram negative rod that can give you pretty bad inflammatory diarrhea. If like you like raw chicken, you'll love salmonella.

Hormones Implicating Obesity

Come along and sing a song and join the jamboree! M-I-C-K-E-Y-M-O-U-S-E.

First and foremost, sorry for the lack of posting. I was thinking of backtracking and fooling Blogger into thinking that I actually posted on the days I've missed out this week (which was practically every day), so if you see a post on Wednesday and the like... well, I cheated!

Anyway, what makes mice fat in experimental studies? Let me count the (hormonal) ways.

You could have a lack of anorixegenic peptides (CCK, PYY, oxyntomodulin, glucagon like peptide 1, pancreatic polypeptide). In class we concentrated on PYY. This rises after we eat and tells the pituitary/hypothalamus to STOP EATING. But man, do I love food.

You could also have too much ghrelin. Ghrelin levels are highest when we're in the fasting state ( = when I'm starving for a brownie). Fun clinical correlate: Prader-Willi (chromosome 15 paternal deletion, to jog your memory) patients have high levels of ghrelin. Ghrelin is also hard for me to pronounce and write.

Volvulus: Coffee Bean Sign

I'll have a venti triple shot half foam double whip cappuccino with non fat soy and 1/2 shot hazelnut, bitch.

In the previous Peeps post I talked about volvulus, a twisting of the colonic mesentery. Turns out you're more likely to see this huge bean looking thing on an X-ray to visualize this condition. Man I hate coffee.

Also, I drew this in two minutes.

Volvulus

Disgusting. Worst Easter treat ever.

I saw this CT with contrast for volvulus on one of the lectures and it totally looked like a Peep! Volvulus is a twisting of the mesentery (usually of the sigmoid colon or cecum) and also turns up as a "coffee bean" on a plain abdominal film. The beak of the Peep is the point where the twisting occurs.

Papillomatosis in Reflux Esophagitis

It was either this or the Jigsaw puppet from the Saw movies.

Acute changes in reflux esophagitis include the presence of intraepithelial segmented WBCs, basal cell hyperplasia, papillomatosis ( a saw tooth appearance), and erosions.

Chronic changes include fibrosis (manifesting as a stricture) and Barrett's esophagitis (where you see esophageal epithelium looking more like small intestinal epithelium).

Bacillus Cereus

Why so... cereus?

Bacillus cereus apparently causes diarrhea and can be found in fried rice. I still love Panda Express.

Pill Esophagitis

Pills > Suppositories

What are a couple of causes of pill esophagitis? What kinds of drugs will kind of give you a very painful feeling in the throat?

Tetracyclines are a known culprit... and also alendronate, quinidine, KCl, and a couple of chemotherapy drugs (daunorubicin, bleomycin, 5-FU).

Parietal Cell

Where my Rooty Tooty Fresh 'N Fruity at?!

This is a picture of what I ate for breakfast... or rather what I wish I ate for breakfast. I'm usually lucky enough to eat the bits of cereal left on the table. Anyway, the circles in the stomach cartoon are supposed to resemble fried eggs because that's what the parietal cells of the stomach are supposed to look like! They are the principal cells for acid secretion (HCl) and to me are the coolest looking.

It's also my birthday today! I'm going to have ice cream to celebrate. Now how are my gut organs supposed to handle all the fat/sugar after my ice cream binge... hmm...

Pepto Bismol MAX!

When you have nausea, heartburn, indigestion, upset stomach, diarrhea!

Pepto Bismol was my go-to OTC medication for diarrhea as a child, and it wasn't because of their really catchy jingle on the TV. I never knew how Pepto worked before though, and now I sort of do!

Also, this cartoon is a caricature of me. I'd love to be a door-to-door Pepto Bismol salesman.

Rugae Reggae

Ya mon!

Rugae are the ridges and folds in the stomach. I remember in anatomy class when I had to scrape out all the contents from the stomach to visualize the rugae. All that junk was green. I also helped scrape/scoop out all the feces from the large intestines out of the rectum. I'm a good scraper.

Chief Cell

Remember that song in Peter Pan? "What made the red man red"? Yeah, sorta racist.

Chief cells are found in the body of the stomach and are chiefly (hah?!) responsible for the secretion of pepsinogen, the zymogen to pepsin. The nucleus is located basally along with basophilic rough endoplasmic reticulum and on the apical surface you can see the graunules filled with eosinophilic pepsinogen.

P-ANCA

HULK!!!

Anti-neutrophil cytoplasmic antibodies and just about any antibody in general are helpful for immunological testing. p-ANCA will stain in a perinuclear fashion (around the nucleus - which is not shown well in the drawing) on a neutrophil and is anti-myeloperoxidase. Microscopic polyangiitis and Churg-Strauss patients will usually have p-ANCA positive neutrophils.