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SK299/K

Module Examination 2021

HUMAN BIOLOGY

PART 1

This Part carries 15 marks of the 40 marks available for this paper and consists of a single question. You should attempt ALL parts of the question.

Question 1

Curly Bearson is a 35-year-old businessman whose company has been undergoing financial difficulties, ‘restructuring’ and ‘downsizing’, all of which have worried him considerably. Curly has little spare time but his main relaxation is meeting his friends on the way home from work for a couple of pints (or three) in his local pub and watching football at home on satellite television. He eats chicken and chips or a burger in the pub but tends to snack at work at odd hours on biscuits and chocolate bars.

Curly has a bodyweight of 95 kg and his height is 1.65 m. Although Curly has enjoyed excellent health from birth and played a lot of football when he was younger, he has recently felt increasingly tired and ‘run down’, he is frequently thirsty and passes a lot of urine.

Curly visited his GP who arranged for him to have an oral glucose tolerance test. His blood was sampled at the start of the test (time 0); he then drank a glucose drink containing 50 g of glucose in 250 ml of water. Curly’s blood was then sampled every 15 minutes for 90 minutes. The blood glucose levels are recorded in Table 1. Also shown are blood glucose levels from another 35-year-old man, who is considered to be healthy, after he undertook the same test.

Table 1: Blood glucose levels for Curly and a healthy individual whilst undergoing an oral glucose tolerance test

(a) Calculate Curly’s Body Mass Index (BMI) using the formula below. Round your answer to one decimal place.

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 (b) What does Curly’s BMI tell you about his body?

From the above table above Curly’s current BMI is 34.9kg/m² classified as obese class i. This suggests that Curly is now suffering from obesity.

(c) Using the information in Table 1, plot a hand-drawn line graph to show how

blood glucose concentration changes over time for (i) the Healthy man and,

on the same axes, (ii) for Curly Bearson. Give the graph a title, choose suitable scales for the axes, and label the axes.

The Practice Nurse at Curly’s surgery tests a urine sample from Curly, taken at 60 minutes into the glucose tolerance test using a dip-stick (a plastic strip with a piece of indicator paper at the end): the indicator paper changes to red, indicating a positive result.

(d) From the evidence of Curly’s blood and urine tests, from what condition do you think Curly is suffering?

(e) Why have the urine test yielded the result that it has?

(f) What aspects of Curly’s lifestyle are contributing to the condition you identified in part (d)?

(g) If the condition you identified in part (d) is left untreated, using your knowledge of SK299, briefly describe three harmful changes that may occur in Curly’s body.

PART 2

Answer ONE of the essay questions in this Part.

Your answer should include an essay plan and your essay, written in an appropriate essay style with proper sentences and paragraphs. You should include relevant drawings, tables, and diagrams. You are not required to provide references. Your essay should be no longer than 1200 words in length – this is a mandatory word limit and 2 marks will be deducted if you exceed it (i.e. if your essay exceeds the word limit by 10%). Include a word count at the end of your essay. Your word count does not include figure legends, the content of tables, essay title (though the latter is not necessary), or the essay plan. It is possible to write a high-scoring essay in fewer words.

All figures and diagrams must be hand-drawn and your work; however, tables can be computer-generated (e.g. using the table tool in Word).

The question from this Part carries 25 marks of the 40 marks available for this paper.

Question 2

This essay is based on the chosen topic of Stress.

Writing in your own words and using your knowledge of SK299, describe metabolic changes involved in acute stress and how diseases in the HPA axis can affect this response. In your answer, ensure that you describe the physiological mechanisms and anatomical structures involved in the acute stress response.

Question 3

This essay is based on the chosen topic Musculoskeletal system.

Writing in your own words and using your knowledge of SK299, explain how life choices can hurt bone health

Question 4

This essay is based on the chosen topic Reproduction & fertility.

Writing in your own words and using your knowledge of SK299, discuss the physiological regulation of the menstrual cycle and how drugs can be used to prevent pregnancy

Last updated: Jan 11, 2022 12:52 PM