10.1: Case Study: Getting to Know Your Body

Case Study: Under Pressure

Looking at the photo of a football game in Figure \(\PageIndex{1}\), you can see why it is so important that the players wear helmets because players may fall on their heads or on top of each other's heads. Football often involves forceful impact to the head as players tackle each other. This can cause damage to the brain — either temporarily as in the case of a concussion, or long-term and more severe types of damage. Helmets are critical to reducing the incidence of traumatic brain injuries (TBIs), but they do not fully prevent them.

Figure \(\PageIndex{1}\):Football players

Take the example of 43-year-old Dayo. As a former professional football player who also played in college and high school, Dayo sustained many high-impact head injuries over the course of their football playing years. Dayo uses they/ them pronouns. A few years ago, Dayo began experiencing a variety of troubling symptoms, including the loss of bladder control (i.e. the involuntary leakage of urine), memory loss, and difficulty in walking. Symptoms such as these are often signs of damage to the nervous system, which includes the brain, spinal cord, and nerves, but they can result from many different types of injuries or diseases that affect the nervous system. In order to treat Dayo properly, their doctors needed to do several tests to determine the exact cause of their symptoms. These included a spinal tap to see if they had an infection, and an MRI (magnetic resonance imaging) to see if there were any problems with their brain structure.

The MRI revealed the cause of Dayo’s symptoms. There are fluid-filled spaces within the brain called ventricles, and Dayo’s ventricles were enlarged compared to normal ventricles. Based on this observation combined with the results of other tests, Dayo’s doctor diagnosed them with hydrocephalus, a term that literally means “water head.” Hydrocephalus occurs when the fluid that fills the ventricles, called cerebrospinal fluid, builds up excessively. This causes the ventricles to become enlarged and puts pressure on the brain, which can cause a variety of neurological symptoms including the ones Dayo was experiencing. You can see the difference between normal ventricles and ventricles that are enlarged due to hydrocephalus in the illustration below. Notice how the brain becomes “squeezed” due to hydrocephalus in the image on the right.

Figure \(\PageIndex{2}\). Comparison of an infant with (on the right) and without hydrocephalus (on the left). The ventricles (shown in blue-gray) are located inside of the brain (shown in pink). Ventricles are enlarged in the infant with hydrocephalus.

Hydrocephalus often occurs at birth, due to genetic factors or events that occurred during fetal development. Because babies are born with skull bones that are not fully fused, the skull of a baby born with hydrocephalus can expand and relieve some of the pressure on the brain, as reflected in the enlarged head size shown above. But adults have fully fused, inflexible skulls, so when hydrocephalus occurs in an adult, the brain experiences all of the increased pressure.

Why did Dayo develop hydrocephalus? There are many possible causes of hydrocephalus in adults, including tumors, infections, hemorrhages, and TBIs. Given their repeated and long history of TBIs due to football, and the absence of any evidence of infection, tumor, or other cause, Dayo’s doctor thinks their head injuries were most likely responsible for their hydrocephalus.

Although hydrocephalus is serious, there are treatments. Read the rest of this chapter to learn about the cells, tissues, organs, cavities, and systems of the body, how they are interconnected, and the importance of keeping the body in a state of homeostasis, or balance. The amount of cerebrospinal fluid in the ventricles is normally kept at a relatively steady level, and the potentially devastating symptoms of hydrocephalus are an example of what can happen when a system in the body becomes unbalanced. At the end of the chapter, you will learn about Dayo’s treatment and prognosis.

Chapter Overview: Introduction to the Human Body

In this chapter, you will learn about the general organization and functions of the human body. Specifically, you will learn about:

• The organization of the body from atoms and molecules up through cells, tissues, organs, and organ systems.
• How organ systems work together to carry out the functions of life.
• The variety of different specialized cell types in humans, the four major types of human tissues, and some of their functions.
• What organs are and the 11 major organ systems of the human body.
• Spaces in the body called body cavities, and the organs they hold and protect.
• The tissues and fluid that protect the brain and spinal cord.
• How organ systems communicate and interact in body processes such as cellular respiration, digestion, the fight-or-flight response to stressors, and physical activities such as sports.
• How homeostasis is maintained to keep the body in a relatively steady state, and the problems that can be caused by loss of homeostasis, such as diabetes.

As you read the chapter, think about the following questions:

1. What is the normal function of cerebrospinal fluid?
2. What is a spinal tap and how does it test for infection?
3. In Dayo’s case, what organs and organ systems are probably affected by their hydrocephalus? What are some ways in which these organ systems interact?
4. The level of cerebrospinal fluid is normally kept in a state of homeostasis. What are other examples of types of homeostasis that keep your body functioning properly?

Attributions

1. Army vs. Navy Football game by U.S. Navy photo by Photographer’s Mate 2nd Class Jayme Pastoric, public domain via Wikimedia Commons
2. Hydrocephalus by CDC released into the public domain via Wikimedia Commons
3. Text adapted from Human Biology by CK-12 licensed CC BY-NC 3.0