Medicine and Surgery

The Integrated Pathology III course includes: i. endocrine system pathology, and ii. Gastrointestinal system pathology. Both topics will be addressed during the first semester of the 4th year. The Pharmacology Unit of the endocrine system pathology will deal with: a. the pharmacology of endocrine pancreas: Insulin, oral hypoglycaemic drugs. Students will be introduced to the European guidelines for the therapy of diabetes mellitus type I and II. b. Pituitary hormones and their hypothalamic releasing factors. c. Drugs for the therapy of insipid diabetic and SIADH d. Adrenocortical steroids and their synthetic analogues e. Thyroid and anti-thyroid drugs. Hormones and drugs will be discussed in terms of mechanism of action, clinical indications, place in therapy, drug-drug interactions, contraindications, and adverse effects. The Pharmacology Unit of the gastrointestinal system pathology will deal with: Agents used for the control gastric acidity, treatment of peptic ulcers and gastroesophageal reflux disease. Prokinetic agents and antiemetics Drugs for inflammatory bowel diseases All drugs will be discussed in terms of mechanism of action, clinical indications, place in therapy, , drug-drug interactions, contraindications, and adverse effects.

knowledge of the physiology of the endocrine and gastrointestinal system (important)

PowerPoint presentations of the Course lessons Goodman and Gilman's The Pharmacological Basis of Therapeutics, McGraw-Hill Education, XIV edition, 2023

Class attendance is mandatory, according to the Faculty rules

i. active partecipation during lessons (25%) ii. results from written examination (75%). Multiple choice-quizzes will be the standard test. Duration of the written examination will be 10 minutes for each unit. At least 4 correct answers are required to pass the test. In case the student will fail the written exam, he/she will be offered oral examination. For the oral examination, some of the elements that will be taken into consideration are: the logic applied to the resolution of the question; the adequacy of the response in relation to the knowledge the student should have acquired at the end of the course; the use of appropriate scientific language. In-coming international students who will request it, have the possibility to pass the exam in English. In this case, only oral examination will be offered.

Frontal lections and clinical case discussions with students. These will allow to obtain points 1 and 2 of learning objectives (see section on learning objectives awaited). Tutorials on how to navigate through the EMA, AIFA, and main scientific societies' websites, to find international therapy guidelines, will allow to obtain point 5 of learning objectives. Multiple-choice quizzes and/or short scientific reports will teach students how to integrate the knowledge derived from attending the course to formulate judgements based on the available data. (point 3 of learning objectives). Students will also be requested to discuss some scientific articles and translate their content into patient and relative-friendly information, in order to accomplish point 4 of learning objectives.