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Mistchenko V.P., Tkachenko e.V. Normal physiology

(SHORT LECTION COURSE FOR THE STUDENTS OF MEDICAL DEPARTMENT)

POLTAVA- 2005

Dear students!

In a brief course of our lectures on normal physiology for the students of medical faculty, offered to you, the basic concepts about all human organism systems functionning are stated. It is natural, that because of material statement brevity due to very much lectures amount, they can not give the complete answer to numerous questions, which can appear at their reading, all the more so there is no illustrative material in them. However, from our point of view, these lectures can be good addition to the existing textbooks and manuals. All the more so we read lectures from a position of clinical physiology, and not just from those classical performances about physiology, which are stated in the bulk of educational literature. It all does not mean, that in our lectures the knowledge of classical physiology is not used. The thing is that the knowledge is so quickly replenishes with the new items of information, that the known textbooks and manuals at any stage and in any sections obviously lag behind modernity. Lectures contain as well the data, which undoubtedly can be very useful to you at a study of internal diseases, surgery and other clinical disciplines. Believe our experience, you, being trained on the senior courses, will open these lectures time and again! We wish a success to you!

Yours faithfully, professor V.P.Mishenko and assistant E.V.Tkachenko.

Lecture 1 (Introductional) Physiology as a science. Physiological investigations methods. Physiology chapters. Excitive tissues physiology.

Physiology as a science. Physiology is a science about functions and processes taking place in organism as well as in its compartments: systems, organs, tissues and cells.

Function – is a system or organ specific activity. For instance, blood circulation system function – is blood movement through vessels.

Process – is a phenomena and states consequent change in any action development or consequent actions integrity.

System – organs and tissues integrity connected with their general function. For example, heart-vascular system, providing nutrients, oxygen, metabolism products transport to the tissues by menas of heart and vessels.

Separate functions description is obeyed to integral organism tasks, regularities of interrelation with environment, his behavior in different existancial conditions, maturation in course of phylogenesis and onthogenesis. Physiological mechanisms study requires obligatory knowledge of anatomy, histology, biology, chemistry, physics and other sciences.

Physiology studies organism viability under norma. Norma – are limits of alive system optimal existance. The term “norma” is rather complicated, dynamic and ambiguous. Many normal indexes in medicine are described as middle-statistic sizes (for example, blood formed elements amount, pulse frequency et al.). All these ziphras depend on many factors (natural, social). These factors should be taken into account while assessment of one or other organism function. For instance, pulse frequency depends on: time, age, place of investigated person localization and many others.

Physiological investigations methods depend on aims and tasks. The simplest physiological method is observation. Power of observation is essential for any doctor. It allows him to tell about patient’s problems according patient’s appearence (stature, carriage, face colour and other features).

Second widely-spread physiological method is experiment. One can differentiate acute experiment - with animal section and his further death and chronic – when after operation, in some time after wound repairing one performes investigations. The term “chronic experiment” and chronic experiment itself was proposed by I.P.Pavlov (remind hid world-known experiments on dogs alimentary tract with fistules application).

Besides, different models which allow to investigate cell, tissue and organ function

are used in physiology.

Physiology chapters. Though physiology is united science about organisms functions one can differentiate several chapters in it:

1. a) General - studying processes general for organisms and their separate structures.

b) Partial – its task – to investigate separate organs (brain, heart, kidney et al.) and systems (alimentary, circulative, respiratory) functions.

2. a) Comparative – functions similarity and difference in various representatives of animal’s world.

b) Evolutional – common biological regularities and mechanisms investigation in humans and animals in ontho- and phylogenesis.

c) Applied – organism functions investigation taking into account his specific activity:

• physiology of agricultural animals;

• aviational physiology;

• cosmic;

• submerged et al.