Practice Questions Flashcards

What is impaired glucose tolerance?

Answer: 2-hour plasma glucose between 140-199 mg/dl

Impaired Glucose Tolerance (IGT) is a pre-diabetic state characterized by blood glucose levels that are higher than normal but not yet high enough to be diagnosed as type 2 diabetes. Specifically, IGT is diagnosed when a 2-hour plasma glucose level during an oral glucose tolerance test (OGTT) falls between 140 mg/dL and 199 mg/dL. This indicates that the body is not processing glucose as efficiently as it should.

Which of the following statements regarding low serum albumin levels is untrue?

Answer: It may be used to diagnosis esophageal reflux.

Low serum albumin (hypoalbuminemia) is a common indicator of malnutrition (e.g., kwashiorkor), inflammation, liver disease, or conditions causing protein loss like nephrotic syndrome, and can contribute to fluid retention like ascites. However, serum albumin levels are not used as a diagnostic marker for esophageal reflux (GERD). GERD is typically diagnosed based on symptoms, endoscopy, or pH monitoring, not by albumin levels.

Which of the above approaches to nutrition evaluation is used to gather dietary data from a community?

Answer: Food frequency questionnaire

A Food Frequency Questionnaire (FFQ) is a dietary assessment tool designed to estimate the usual intake of foods and nutrients over a specific period (e.g., a month or a year). FFQs are particularly useful for large-scale epidemiological studies and community-level assessments because they are relatively inexpensive, less burdensome for participants, and can capture long-term dietary patterns, making them ideal for gathering data from a community.

The effects of the digestive hormone gastrin are all except for the following:

Answer: Decreased pepsinogen production by the stomach

Gastrin is a hormone primarily secreted by G cells in the stomach, and its main functions are to stimulate gastric acid (HCl) secretion by parietal cells and pepsinogen secretion by chief cells. It also increases gastric motility and promotes growth of the gastric mucosa. Therefore, decreased pepsinogen production is *not* an effect of gastrin; rather, gastrin *increases* pepsinogen production.

Cirrhosis of the liver exhibits the following symptoms:

Answer: Ascites and hypoalbuminemia

Cirrhosis is a severe form of liver disease characterized by extensive scarring of the liver. This damage impairs the liver's ability to synthesize proteins, including albumin, leading to low serum albumin levels (hypoalbuminemia). Hypoalbuminemia, combined with portal hypertension (increased pressure in the portal vein), contributes to fluid leakage into the abdominal cavity, resulting in ascites (fluid accumulation in the abdomen). These two symptoms are classic manifestations of advanced cirrhosis.

Which of the following vitamins has hormone-like properties?

Answer: Vitamin D

Vitamin D is unique among vitamins because it functions as a prohormone. When activated in the body, it is converted into calcitriol, a steroid hormone that plays a crucial role in calcium and phosphate homeostasis, bone health, and has widespread effects on cell growth, immune function, and inflammation. Its ability to act on distant target cells and regulate gene expression through specific receptors is characteristic of a hormone.

An efficient program for screening nutrition.

Answer: Is founded on the concepts of specificity and sensitivity

An efficient and effective nutrition screening program relies on tools that are both sensitive and specific. Sensitivity refers to the ability of the screening tool to correctly identify individuals who *do* have a nutritional risk (true positives), while specificity refers to its ability to correctly identify individuals who *do not* have a nutritional risk (true negatives). A good balance of these two concepts ensures that at-risk individuals are identified without an excessive number of false positives.