A Case Study of theMuscular System

The purpose of thisassignment is to assess your ability to communicate effectively,think critically, and understand quantitative information. Thisassignment also gives you the opportunity to work through apotential real-life scenario in the medical field.

Obtain all data for thepatients to answer the questions, fill out the tables, and producegraphs. You will be submitting answers (typed),tables, and graphs. Your words must be your own, do not just writeone paragraph for everyone to turn-in. Graphs must be properlylabelled. All sources used, including textbook, must be referencedat the end of your paper. You should turn-in a unique typedassignment that includes the following:

·         Theanswers to questions 1 through 20 (includes tables 1, 2, 3, andgraphs)

·         Writean alphabetized list of all sources referenced in your answers inproper APA format.

PartI

You are a volunteer in aCalifornia medical office of Dr. Williams. Dr. Williams specializesin rare neuromuscular and musculoskeletal disorders. You’re also agrad student and working with Dr. Williams has allowed you to gainfirst-hand experience with some of the material that you’relearning in your human physiology course.

Today a group of highschool students is coming for a tour and Dr. Williams has asked youto prepare some information about muscles to present to thestudents, such as the neuromuscular junction (NMJ), skeletal musclecontraction, and issues that can arise when signaling betweenneurons and muscles does not happen as it is supposedto.

Questions [CriticalThinking and Communication]

1. Write a summaryparagraph to explain the action of muscles to high school studentsas Dr. Williams instructed.

PartII – Joyce Snyder

After the high schoolgroup finishes their tour, Dr. Williams sees twopatients.

Joyce Snyder is abiochemist working for a bio-warfare lab at a university. She isworking on a project using sarin as a model substance. Suddenly,while working, the lab alarms go off and Joyce accidentally knocksa vial of sarin over and a bit of the liquid splashes onto her armbetween her gloves and lab coat.

She suddenly starts tofeel dizzy, her heart starts pounding harder than ever, and she hasshortness of breath. She feels incredibly sluggish and tries to getto the exit. As she approaches the lab door, her muscles cramp andshe falls down and hits her head, knocking her unconscious. Hercolleagues from across the hall happen to see her fall and call forhelp. Joyce is given oxygen and taken to the nearbyhospital.

Joyce is admitted to thehospital and Dr. Williams examines her. Joyce is unconscious butseems to be experiencing some paralysis, so Dr. Williams ordersblood work. The results are listed in Table 1 below, the top linerepresents her initial readings; the following three rows are forsubsequent time points. You must work with your team members tointerpret all clinical values.

Dr. Williams looks overthe results and knows from Joyce ’s colleague that she is abioweapons biochemist. Dr. Williams figures out that Joyce has beenworking on synthesizing a new sarin-like biochemical weapon andsuspects she has a type of poisoning that is like that ofsarin.

Questions [CriticalThinking]

2. What symptoms is Joyceexperiencing?

3. What is the role ofAChE in the NMJ?

4. Examine Table 1 below.Fill-in the normal range of values for each of the variables in thelast (blank) row.

Table 1. Lab values forJoyce Snyder. (Serum)

Time Point	BP	Temp. (°F)	Hemat. (%)	Glucose (mg/dL)	Na+ (mEq/L)	K+ (mEq/L)	AChE Activity (% of normal)	Thyroxine (pmol/L)	Serum Triiodothyronine(FT3) (pg/dL)	Antibodies for AchReceptors
1	105/65	99.4 °F	37.5%	88 mg/dL	139 mEq/L	3.8 mEq/L	44%	9.1       pmol/L	112 pg/dL	none
2	108/70	100.1 °F	38.0%	100 mg/dL	135 mEq/L	5.0 mEq/L	42%	8.5 pmol/L	100 pg/dL	none
3	130/92	98.0 °F	36.2%	95 mg/dL	132 mEq/L	5.2 mEq/L	50%	10.0 pmol/L	150 pg/dL	none
4	115/85	99.2 °F	36.9%	80 mg/dL	144 mEq/L	3.5 mEq/L	88%	12.0 pmol/L	82 pg/dL	none
Normal Values

Questions [Critical Thinkingand Communication and Quantitative]

5. Which of Joyce ’slevels are abnormal and at what time point?

6. What is the mechanismof action of sarin or a sarin-like chemical?

7. How would exposure to asarin-like poison affect the amounts of Na⁺ going intothe muscle cell? Explain why.

8. How would exposure to asarin or sarin-like chemical affect Ca2⁺ levels insidethe sarcoplasmic reticulum? Why?

9. How do these alteredCa2⁺ levels affect the position of the actin and myosinfilaments? Why/how?

10. What needs to happento Joyce’s post-synaptic membrane to remedy her paralysis?Physiologically what do we need more of, and where?

Part V

21. Write an alphabetized list of all sources referenced inyour answers in proper APA format!!!