Clinical Immunology
Keywords |
Classification |
Keyword |
OFICIAL |
Medicine |
Instance: 2020/2021 - 1S (of 14-09-2020 to 07-02-2021) 
Cycles of Study/Courses
Teaching language
Suitable for English-speaking students
Objectives
To integrate the knowledge of the basic mechanisms of the immune response in the pathogenesis of human diseases. To understand the basic principles of clinical and laboratorial diagnosis and or the treatment of immune diseases. At the end of this Curricular Unit students are expected to acquire the following competences: A - To demonstrate knowledge of immune dysfunction in a clinical perspective and of immunological therapies; B – To apply basic immunology concepts in the interpretation of human pathology; C – To describe common immunopathological conditions and know how to collect laboratorial data to formulate a diagnosis; D – To be able to communicate scientific and technical information; E – To demonstrate skills on continuous personal development.
Learning outcomes and competences
The syllabus covers the basic mechanisms of the immune response involved in the pathogenesis of human diseases, as well as the basic principles of the clinical and laboratory diagnosis of immune disorders, and immunomodulation.
The teaching classes (lectures/ seminars, and group work/ tutotrials) target competences A to C, and group work competences D and E. The distributed evaluation mainly aims to evaluate competences D and E with the final exam aims to competences A to C.
Working method
Presencial
Program
- Hypersensitivity mechanisms (type I to IV). General characteristics (clinical and immunopathology) of hypersensitivity disorders;
- Hypersensitivity diseases and its immunopathology : allergic asthma and rhinitis, anaphylaxis, food and hymenoptera allergy; drug allergy. Diffuse lung disorders.
- Infectious diseases and Immunopathlogy;
- Secondary Immunodeficiencies: HIV infection and the Acquired Immunodeficiency Syndrome;
- Auto-immune diseases - General characteristics, immunopathology, laboratory evaluation;
- Organ-specific and systemic auto-immune diseases;
- Exercise and the inflammatory, immune response;
- Transplantation - Transplant rejection mechanisms; hematopoietic progenitors transplantation;
- Immune-modulation - imunization(vaccines) and biological therapies.
Mandatory literature
Owen JA, Punt J, Stranford SA ; Kuby Immunology, Freeman and Co, 2013. ISBN: 13: 978-14641-3784-6
Complementary Bibliography
Arosa F.A., Cardoso E.M., Pacheco F.C; Fundamentos de Imunologia, Lidel Edições Técnicas Lda, 2012. ISBN: 978-972-757-856-6
Comments from the literature
Lectures summaries, iconography and bibliographic materials for seminars and group works, will be supplied and available at the Immunology e-learning platform (Moodle), within the Porto University e-learning project.
Teaching methods and learning activities
Clinical Immunology will have a total of 81 learning hours/year (3 ECTS), of which 28 hours (35%) will be teaching classes. These will include weekly lecture and seminars, (total of 14 hours), and group work/ tutotrials with a total of 14h contact with the teaching team.
Evaluation Type
Distributed evaluation with final exam
Assessment Components
Designation |
Weight (%) |
Exame |
80,00 |
Participação presencial |
5,00 |
Teste |
10,00 |
Trabalho escrito |
5,00 |
Total: |
100,00 |
Amount of time allocated to each course unit
Designation |
Time (hours) |
Elaboração de relatório/dissertação/tese |
10,00 |
Estudo autónomo |
45,00 |
Frequência das aulas |
26,00 |
Total: |
81,00 |
Eligibility for exams
It is obligatory to attend 75% of programed activities with exception of lectures
Calculation formula of final grade
The final exam is a written theoretical exam (80% of the final score), with 65 multiple-choice type questions . The time limit applied is 1 minute per test question (65 minutes), with 5-minute tolerance period (total time = 70 minutes). The written exam will be accesed and answered online within the Moodle platform.
The classification obtained by approval in the final written exam (e.g. equal or more than 9.5 in a 20.0 score) corresponds to 80% of the final score. The remaining 20% (up to a score of 4.0) will result from distributed evaluation (teaching assistant information of the work groups- up to 1.0, auto-evaluation quizzes-up to 2.0, and evaluation of one of the written projects and of its presentation- up to 1.0.
Students with a final score of 10 (in 20) are directly approved
Classification improvement
Students with a final score of 10 (in 20) are directly approved, but they may submit to a complementary oral exam to improve their final score. This is assessed by a jury of 2 teachers who will question the students for a maximum period of 30 minutes; the mark obtained in this exam is final and replaces the previous score.
There is also the possibility of a final grade improvement, if the students publish one of their written projects/ monographs in a scientific journal on the following year. The grade improvement will be decided by the coordinator according to journal impact factor and/or students commitment.
Observations
Lectures summaries, iconography and bibliographic materials for seminars and group works, will be supplied and available at the Immunology e-learning platform (Moodle), within the Porto University e-learning project.
Additional bibliography: Kuby Immunology, Owen JA, Punt J, Stranford SA eds. 7th ed, 2013 WH Freeman and Co, ISBN-13: 978-14641-3784-6; Fundamentos de Imunologia, Arosa F.A., Cardoso E.M., Pacheco F.C., Lidel Edições Técnicas Lda., 2nd Edition 2012, ISBN 978-972-757-856-6; Color Atlas of Immunology, Burmester G.R., Pezzuto A., 2003, Georg Thieme Verlag, Germany, ISBN 0 86577 964 3 (TNY).