75297 - Respiratory Diseases -

Learning outcomes

Describe the clinical manifestations, etiology, epidemiology, risk factors, natural history, diagnosis, staging, prognostic indicators and management of the major respiratory diseases, with emphasis on those most commonly encountered in the clinical practice. Identify the major diagnostic and therapeutic options for each encountered clinical scenario, and discuss their benefits and limitations.

Course contents

Epidemiology of respiratory disorders (i.e. the prevalence and incidence of these diseases, the risk factors and the economical burden)

• Mechanics of breathing (i.e. how we breathe, compliance, resistance and their changes during a disease)
• Pulmonary Function Tests (i.e. from simple spirometry, to plethismography and diffusion capacity tests)
• Respiratory failure (i.e. diagnosis and mechanisms of acute and chronic respiratory failure)
• Oxygen therapy (i.e. the way of administration and the devices used during acute respiratory failure and long-term oxygen therapy)

• • Diseases

  • Asthma (i.e. epidemiology, symptoms, diagnosis,

    prognosis and excursus on the main treatments)

  • Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease (COPD) (i.e. i.e. epidemiology, symptoms, diagnosis, prognosis and excursus on the main treatments)

Readings/Bibliography

slides and other online materials will be provided

Teaching methods

Interactive lectures where general rules are derived from practical examples taken from everyday experience.

Attendance to learning activities is mandatory; the minimum attendance requirement to be admitted to the final exam is 60% of lessons. For Integrated Courses (IC), the 60% attendance requirement refers to the total amount of I.C. lessons. Students who fail to meet the minimum attendance requirement will not be admitted to the final exam of the course

Assessment methods

The final exam/final summative assessmentwill be an oral or written exam/assessment consisting of questions focusing on the educational objectives and topics of the integrated course of Thoracic and Vascular Diseases (I.C.)

Professors of the integrated courses participate in an overall collegial assessment of the student's final profit. The final summative assessment is expressed with a scale of grades from 18 to 30.

Teaching tools

Slides and online materials

Office hours

See the website of Irene Prediletto