Objective 42: Immunity

Distinguish non-specific, innate or natural immunity from specific or acquired immunity.........

Active vs. Passive & Natural vs. Artificial Humoral Immunity

Natural Acquired Active - Exposure to the disease

Artificial Acquired Active  - Immunizations

Natural Acquired Passive - From Mom (temporary)

Artificial Acquired Passive - Injected (temporary)

This is a brief passage from one of my nursing lecture outlines.  I immediately thought of my E-Portfolio project when I read this.  I think that this stuck with me because its such a simplistic breakdown of the information, yet it still works!  Sometimes we all hit a mental road-block (or two or three) during the course of a semester, and it takes short, direct, no-nonsense info to get the job done!

Objectives 34, 37, & 41: Lymph organs, Immune System and B & T Cells

Components and functions of the lymphatic and immune system and primary and secondary lymphatic organs.  Development and maturation of B and T Cells.

http://www.biog1105-1106.org/demos/105/unit7/lymphaticsys.html



I thought that this was a great picture in that it gives a good overview of both the primary and secondary lymph organs as well as a brief description of the role that they play in the lymphatic and immune systems.  To be perfectly honest, I've never really given the lymphatic system much thought prior to now (Big Surprise, most people probably never do)!  And furthermore, I guess I wasn't really all that sure what it actually was.  The lymphatic and immune systems are sort of a jumble of organs that all really belong to another system! Prior to this class, I certainly never thought of bone as playing a part in immunity, yet its marrow is the site where the body produces blood cells including the lymphocytes (T-Cells and B-Cells) that protect our body from invading  pathogens through direct cellular and humoral responses.  While the B-Cells remain in the bone marrow for maturation, The T-Cells then go on to the Thymus (Hey, isn't that an endocrine organ?) to mature and prepare for battle against invaders.

 I think that I mentioned on an earlier slide that related to blood that there was so much information on the white blood cells, that I was simply trying to memorize the information.  In the chapters on immunity and the lymphatic system, that information all started to make sense. 

Objectives 35 and 38: Lymph flow and Lymph and Edema

Well, as you can see from the picture above, from the Anatomy and Physiology Laboratory Manual**, I took alot of notes in lab that day!  Understanding lymph flow goes back to the process of diffusion for me.  The understanding that fluids (especially one that is primarily water) will follow salt (or solutes) and that molecules will move from an area of higher concentration to lower concentration.  The operation of moving lymph from the interstitial fluid into the lymphatic capillaries works on this same principal, the lymph essentially moves because of a pressure gradient. When the fluid pressure outside of the lymphatic capillaries is higher on the outside, lymph flows in. How does it move through the body?  Because there is no pump for the lymph fluid, it moves through the body very much the same way that blood returns from the distal limbs to the heart; through skeletal muscle contraction and change in pressure due to respiration. Understanding that the lymph node pictured above is essentially a large filter for all of the junk (no, thats not the technical term) that your body has to process; its easy to understand that the nodes can sometimes become "backed up".  This backing up of the lymph fluid can cause localized edema.

Nurses Note: Metastasizing cancers can get trapped in the lymph nodes and cause the nodes to become a secondary cancer site.  The surrounding lymph nodes are often removed in many cancer treatments.

Objectives 36, 39, & 40 - Lymphatics and Immunity

Ok, I have to say, I loved this video!  They actually showed this to us in one of our nursing classes!  Alot of the students in the nursing program still have their last two sciences to take.  Let me state for the record, I would be struggling through this first semester if I didn't have the knowledge base that I've gained in Bio-211 this semester.  The bottom line is that in showing this video they were trying to impart the information that we took two or more lecture periods to learn in class. 

Nurses Note: A big thing that we learn about in our nursing fundamentals classes is handwashing!  You would think that this would be a pretty basic skill.  Unfortunately, nosocomial infections (or health care acquired infections) are one of the largest causes of infection being spread.  This simply comes down to healthcare professionals not properly cleaning their hands in a hospital setting.   

Objective 31 and 32 Major Veins and Arteries

Again, I'm a repetition learner.  Thats why pictures like these from our lab book** help me to learn the names and locations of the major veins and arteries of the body as well as the regions of the body that they spply blood to.  And you can see from my original note to myself on the arteries page, this seemed like quite a task at the beginning!

Objectives 30 and 33 Heart valves and Venous valves

The lecture PowerPoint and the text had great step-by step pictures that demonstrated how the heart valves ensured one-way blood flow through the heart. 

Nurse's Note: Why it matters and how to apply it as a nurse: A problem with the right side of the heart not functioning properly will result in swelling or edema throughout the body whereas a problem with the left side of the heart will typically result in an issue of congestion in the lungs.

http://www.nsbri.org/HumanPhysSpace/focus2/bpflo.html

Just another amazing trait of the human body!  The venous valves are formed from folds of the tunica intima, the innermost layer of the vein.  These valves close as needed to aid in returning the blood from the limbs back to the heart to be reoxygenated.

Objectives 25 - 28 Physiology, Cardiac cycle, EKG, and heart sounds

phys·i·ol·o·gy [ fìzzee ólləjee ]   

1. study of functioning of living things: the branch of biology that deals with the internal workings of living things, including functions such as metabolism, respiration, and reproduction, rather than with their shape or structure
2. body's internal processes: the way a particular body or organism works 

• Encarta World English Dictionary



This video was a huge help in understanding the physioloogy of the heart as well as the processes that the heart went through in each stage of the cardiac cycle.  It went on further to relate the cardiac cycle to the electrical conducting system of the heart.  Understanding how these two items correspond to one another helped me to understand the value of an EKG (or ECG) as a diagnostic tool.

Nurse's Note: Defects in the hearts conduction system cause many common arrhythmias such as V-Fib (ventricular fibrillation). The EKG is the most common tool for determining where any issues within the heart and its conduction system arise from.  Some arrhythmias require the placement of a man-made pacemaker in order to help the heart to beat within its defined parameters in order to maintain homeostasis of the body.