Heart

-Heart Problem Page-

1. Choose one of the problems described below.
2. Prepare your solution as a word document.
3. Send it to your professor as an email attachment. You will receive an email response. 

Problem #1:A child experiences and recovers from a severe bacterial-caused sore throat. Sometime after this, the child develops what the doctors call rheumatic fever based on the previous infection. Utilize the Internet or other sources to answer the following questions:

1. Define "rheumatic fever" and "rheumatic heart."
2. Do all sore throats have the possibility of resulting in rheumatic fever?
3. What microorganism can cause both a sore throat and rheumatic fever?
4. How does the human body respond to infection with this microorganism? Is the microorganism destroyed?
5. Does the infecting organism attack the heart?
6. How is the heart damaged? What region(s) of the heart is(are) damaged?
7. Is one occasion of rheumatic fever generally very serious? How about 2 or more occasions?
8. Explain the role antibiotic use has played in reducing the incidence of rheumatic fever today. What specific antibiotics are useful against this microorganism?

Problem #2: A newborn is diagnosed as having a patent ductus. A surgical procedure is performed when the child is 1.5 years old and the problem is corrected. Utilize the Internet or other sources to answer the following questions:

1. What is the ductus arteriosus (DA)? Does everyone have one? When is it functional? What does it do?
2. What happens to the DA when a child is born?
3. What does the word "patent" mean?
4. What is meaning of "patent ductus" in a newborn?
5. Why is patent ductus a problem? How does it interfere with circulation of blood?
6. How is this condition corrected surgically? Is the correction permanent? Are additional operations required?
7. What is the remnant of the DA in adults? Did you find it in your sheep heart dissection?

E-mail your Professor at firstname.lastname@kbcc.cuny.edu