A 67-year-old pensioner presents to his doctor

with a respiratory infection. The man has worked as a coal miner all his life,

and this lifelong exposure to coal dust has led to the development of a disease

called coal worker pneumoconiosis, which results in a chronic cough and

significant shortness of breath. Coal dust is normally phagocytosed by alveolar

macrophages, but the inorganic components are not degraded by the lysosomal apparatus

of macrophages. However, if their phagocytic capacity is exceeded and

pro-inflammatory factors and aggressive enzymes are released from macrophages,

inflammation develops. This can lead to fibrotic changes in the lungs. This

disease makes even mild respiratory infections in this patient more severe.

What is another name for alveolar macrophages?

A 63-year-old man comes to the physician for

a follow-up evaluation of chronic, retrosternal chest pain. The pain

is worse at night and after heavy meals. He has taken medicines to reduce the

production of stomach acids for several months without any relief from his symptoms.

An upper endoscopy shows changes in the

An investigator is studying the clearance of respiratory particles in

healthy non-smokers. An aerosol

containing radio-labeled particles that are small enough to reach the

alveoli is administered to the subjects via a special mask. A

gamma scanner is then used to evaluate the rate of particle clearance from the

lungs. The primary mechanism of particle clearance most likely involves which

of the following cell types?

A 15-year-old girl had her tongue pierced unprofessionally by her

friend. Unfortunately, this unprofessional execution led to an infection of the

tongue, as well as the sublingual salivary gland located nearby. Which of the

following describes the histological description of this gland?

The researcher was

very interested in an atypical symptom of the disease of COVID-19, namely the

loss of taste. He would like to investigate in more detail the mechanism by

which the taste buds are affected. He obtained tongue samples from patients who

had died of the disease. What kind of papillae of the tongue should he focus on

to most easily find places with an accumulation of taste buds?

A 63-year-old man comes to the physician for

a follow-up evaluation of chronic, retrosternal chest pain. The pain

is worse at night and after heavy meals. He has taken medicines to reduce the

production of stomach acids for several months without any relief from his symptoms.

An upper endoscopy shows changes in the

An investigator is studying the clearance of respiratory particles in

healthy non-smokers. An aerosol

containing radio-labeled particles that are small enough to reach the

alveoli is administered to the subjects via a special mask. A

gamma scanner is then used to evaluate the rate of particle clearance from the

lungs. The primary mechanism of particle clearance most likely involves which

of the following cell types?

A 46-year-old female patient

is found to be anemic during a preventive taking of blood. Despite a healthy

and varied diet, which the patient claims to follow, other findings in her

blood count, such as the presence of large erythrocytes (megalocytes) and low

levels of vitamin B12, make it look like anemia based on a deficiency of this

very important vitamin. Therefore, if the patient is taking enough of it in her

diet, the problem is likely to be in its absorption in the digestive system. In

order for this vitamin to be absorbed from the digestive tract into the blood,

it must be bound to an intrinsic factor in the stomach. Indeed, antibodies to

intrinsic factor have been demonstrated in this patient. Which cells of the

gastric glands produce this factor?

A 64-year-old man

with diverticular disease comes to the emergency department because of painless

rectal bleeding, dizziness, and lightheadedness for 2 hours. His

temperature is 37.8°C, his pulse is 120/min, his respirations are 23/min, and his blood pressure is 83/61 mmHg. His skin and mucous membranes are

pale. Physical examination shows bright red rectal bleeding. Endoscopic

hemostasis is performed. On the base of liver enzymes elevation together with

hemoglobin decrease in plasma, we assume that hypoxic damage of hepatocytes has

occurred, especially in zone III (near the central vein). Which unit of the

liver parenchyma consists of 3 zones, one of which is the zone around the

central vein?

The 63-year-old patient came

to the doctor due to a dry cough lasting for many months, accompanied by

shortness of breath on exertion and fatigue. In addition, he had recently lost

a lot of weight. On physical examination, crepitus (a specific listening

phenomenon - like unzipping a Velcro strap) is present in the lungs. Decreased

oxygen saturation is also measured. In addition, the patient has typical mallet-shaped

fingers with clubbing nails in the shape of an hour glass. To confirm the

diagnosis suspected by his physician, a HRCT of the lungs (high-resolution CT

scan) is required, followed by a lung biopsy and histological examination of

the sample taken. The examination confirm the diagnosis of idiopathic pulmonary

fibrosis. It is probably a uniform pathological response of lung tissue to

infectious and non-infectious agents, but the cause of this disease is unknown.

In this disease, fibrosis and thickening of the blood-air barrier occurs. What

physiologically forms the blood-air barrier?