Lets start blogging

1. Differential Diagnosis

Ok guys, we have not really spent much time on differential diagnosis.
Can someone have a go at discussing the process of differential diagnosis if a patient presented with a condition that seemed a little out of the ordinary. What steps would you follow and why?

2. Pathogenesis

What is collagenase and where does it come from and what role does it play?

What is LPS, where does it originated from and what are its effects?

Some last minute questions

I've just been thinking about the types of questions that could be ask and that we've seen in those practice runs and I have a couple of queries (I'm probably just panicking now as the exam draws closer)....

Diabetes is a risk factor for chronic periodontitis. This seems like an obvious true at first, but then I was thinking it is a pretty broad statement, and that it really is uncontrolled diabetes that is the risk. So if this statement happened to be in the exam (probably too late for requests) would this be false??? I don't want to over think, but in those practice runs it was this kind of statement that tripped me up...

I was just wondering, how much do we need to know about the cells involved in gingivitis and perio?? Do we just need to know the properties and their role in the inflammatory response (eg PMN is a key cellular 'player' in chronic gingivitis in that through chemotaxis it is drawn to the area of attack where it kills bacteria via phagocytosis and cytotoxic products which also cause tissue destruction) or is there more we need to know? Also, with cytokines, do we need to know specific ones (eg Il-2, Il-8) and what they do or just generally know there are different cytokines that do different things at different times (that sounded really bad...)

Do we need to know %s of people who suffer from gingivitis or perio?? For epidemiology do we just need to know basic facts, study designs, tests, etc?

On the topic of tricky questions, much like the diabetes one, would a statement along the lines of: 'Gingivitis is a painful disease' be false, as chronic gingivitis is not painful, but acute forms are???

That'll be all for now I think, don't wanna confuse/worry people before the exam (too late for that probably!)

Tommorow's Exam

This is probably a stupid question, but I just wanted to clarify tomorrow's exam. Is it just on Modules 2 and 3, with assumed knowledge of Module 1? So therefore the topics we need to know about are:

-Gingivitis (etiology and pathogenesis)
-Treatment of Chronic Gingivitis
-Acute Gingivitis and Systemically Modified Forms of Gingivitis
-Risk Factors and Human Disease
-Risk Factors for Chronic Periodontitis
-Stress and Periodontal Disease

Good luck with the rest of your study guys =)

Last checkpoint for tomorrow

What effects does chronic gingivitis have on the blood vessels supplying the gingival tissues?
What are the causes of chronic gingivitis? What are some of the systemic conditoning factors? How are each of these causes managed?
What is the role of diabetes and periodontal conditions? How does diabetes affect the gingival tissues histologically?
Off you go team......
Sophie

Pathogenesis

Also, as far as pathogenesis is concerned make sure you know what the following are and what their role is:
Macrophages
cytokines- which ones are present where
osteoprotogerin
LPS
Prostaglandin E2
Sophie

Hi guys,

Do Ca channel blockers always cause gingival enlargement or does this only happen in some individuals, as dilantin only affected some individuals?

Thanks,

beth xxo

Have a go at these....

What are the causes of localised periodontitis?
What type of bone loss is associated with localised periodontitis?
What type of microbial flora is found in localised periodontitis?
Sophie