NEUR 1203 Study Guide - Winter 2018, Comprehensive Midterm Notes - Olivia Dunham, Spinal Cord, Neuron
12 Oct 2018
School
Department
Course
Professor
NEUR 1203
MIDTERM EXAM
STUDY GUIDE
Fall 2018
NEUR 1203
Olivia Bakker
Winter 2018
Intro to Neurological Disease
Introductory Terminology
•Diagnosis: meaning, what disease is it? Used to distinguish one disease from another
•Etiology: meaning, what caused it? Used to discuss the apparent causation and developmental
history of an illness
•Prognosis: meaning, what are the short/long-term outcomes? Used to forecast the probable
course of a disease
•Epidemiology: the study of the distribution and determinants of health-related states/events in
specified populations, and the application of this study to help control health problems
•Incidence: The number of new cases of a disorder in a given time period (usually a year)
•e.g. approximately 6 200 new cases of Parkinson’s disease are diagnosed each year in
Canada (this can also be said as: 20 new diagnoses per 100 000 people)
•Prevalence: percentage of the population that exhibits a disorder during a specified time period
•e.g. over 100 000 Canadians are currently living with Parkinson’s
•Lifetime prevalence: percentage of people who have been diagnosed with a specific disorder at
any time in their lives
•e.g. the lifetime risk of Parkinson’s disease is 2% in men and 1.3% in women
Diagnosing Neurological Disease Throughout History
•Historically, methods of diagnosis were interesting to say the lease…
•Proper diagnosis for neurological disorders had to wait on a few things to develop, and this
began around the 19th century
•Development of proper tools for clinical investigation
•e.g. tendon hammers, syringes
•Development of imaging techniques
•e.g. X-rays, the electroencephalography (EEG)
•After patients died, clinical neurologists compared their notes to those of the
neuropathologist, and made correlations
•Eventually, as more note-keeping occurred, links were made between specific types of
trauma and their consequences (e.g. stroke, hemiplegia)
•Even more advancements in neurology were made in the 20th century
•Antibiotics
•Improved surgical techniques
•Immunology (vaccines)
•Diagnostic imaging techniques
•Information sharing between scientists ***
•Techniques for visualization (e.g. microscopy, histology)
•Today, things are different
Lecture 1
NMH & Neurological Disease
! of !1 2
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NEUR 1203
Olivia Bakker
Winter 2018
•Evaluating and diagnosing damage to the nervous system is very complex
•Many symptoms occur in many disorders in different combinations
•Many disorders do not have definitive causes, or markers to test for
•In addition to a complete medical history and physical exam, there are a multitude of
diagnostic procedures that may be used to investigate nervous system disorders
•e.g. MRI, EEG, lumbar puncture, evoked potentials
•A lumbar puncture/spinal tap is a special needle is placed into the lower back, into the
spinal canal (this is the area around the spinal cord). The pressure in the spinal canal
and brain can then be measured. A small amount of CSF can be removed and sent for
testing to determine if there is an infection or other problems.
•Evoked potentials are procedures that record the brain’s electrical response to
visual, auditory, and visual stimuli
Lecture 1
NMH & Neurological Disease
! of !2 2
find more resources at oneclass.com
find more resources at oneclass.com
