Why the Patient is Presenting with the Specific Symptoms Described

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The baby’s symptoms included salty skin, a swollen stomach on occasion, and a failure to gain weight normally. According to an article published in the Journal of Cystic Fibrosis titled Inflammation in cystic fibrosis lung disease: Pathogenesis and therapy, epithelia make up the major organ systems. The sweat glands, liver’s bile duct, and intestines in the gastrointestinal tract are all affected in this patient. The article goes on to explain that the patient suffers from malnutrition and does not grow normally as a result of the loss of pancreatic function. As a result, enzyme replacement is critical for this patient in order to prevent cell clogging caused by an inability to breakdown a key nutrient (Cutting, 2015).

The physiologic response to the stimulus presented in the scenario and why you think this response occurred

After reading different sources, I was able to breakdown the pathology behind this patient’s symptoms. This disease starts with the CFTR gene protein being mutated in the chromosome seven, which there are two copies of the recipe, this mutation causes the decrease of chloride acceptance and ion being transported, then this makes the absorption of water to increase which throws off ciliary from completing the job and there is mucus that is dry, this is what causes the skin to be salty of the baby. The stomach inflammation and swelling that is being experienced, is due to the CFTR gene protein not having the right recipe present to the epithelial cell, this is causing malfunction by changing the reabsorption of the sodium, chloride and potassium in the cell, the recipe tells the cell to keep the sodium, chloride and potassium outside of the cell, this causes a back-up of outside of the cell structure and blocks the cell from absorbing the nutrients especially, proteins, fats and vitamins that are fat soluble.

The Cells that are Involved in this Process

The cells involved in this process begin with epithelial membranes found in the digestive tract, pancreas, airways, and reproductive area. According to an article in Apoptosis Journal, cystic fibrosis is caused by epithelial cell dysfunction, which leads to inflammation and an inability to create homeostasis due to the CFTR gene’s constant inflammation. Furthermore, the epithelial cells fail and undergo apoptosis as a result of the inflammation that occurs in the endoplasmic reticulum (Soleti at el., 2013).

How another characteristic (e.g., gender, genetics) would change your response

For cystic fibrosis, it is important to understand that this would not be a disease if the parents did not carry the gene. The

gene is the CFTR gene mutation, mentioned throughout this paper. According to a study done by Harvard Stem Cell Institute, where a lung cell was isolated to examine the function of the CFTR gene. It was shown in the study that if the ionocytes in the cell are not doing their job because it is expressing CFTR gene in increased levels, then the symptoms are created in the cell (Montoro at el., 2018). This occurs in the form of thick mucus and creates the response in the body that does not allow for the patient to regulate sodium, chloride, and potassium in a normal fashion.

Conclusion

During this journey of studying disease in depth and truly understanding how they work will help in the future of my career. I believe that if screening done at the hospitals before they leave would be beneficial. When parents are informed about the possibility of something occurring and what it means, parents will be empowered and get treatment before or if cystic fibrosis symptoms could show up. Also, encouraging parents to come to their baby checkups, will also allow for the medical staff to ask the right questions and treat the baby early, if they see symptoms. Cystic fibrosis is a challenge some patients may struggle with and it is our job as practitioners to catch things before extreme measures need to be taken.

Occur for many reasons. But some, such as cystic fibrosis and Parkinson’s Disease, occur because of alterations that prevent cells from functioning normally.