Digestive tract???

[apoptosis123]

I came upon this question in EK Bio 1001. I know this book has some errors but wasn't sure if this was one of them.

323. Endoparasites live intracellularly in the digestive tract. Which of the following organs is most likely to be inhabited by endoparasites?

A. Gall bladder
B. Spleen
C. Adrenal gland
D. Trachea

Answer is A.

Pretty straightforward question, but I got confused by the answer choices. I thought the tract only referred to the esophagus, stomach, and small intestine, and is different from the digestive system, which refers to the tract and the accessory organs that secrete enzymes for additional nutrient breakdown (i.e. gall bladder). Wikipedia seems to support this. Am I right or is EK right?

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[IamSuperDoctor]

maybe they crept through from the duodenum into the sphincter of oddi and then the common bile duct?

 

[Charles_Carmichael]

I came upon this question in EK Bio 1001. I know this book has some errors but wasn't sure if this was one of them.

323. Endoparasites live intracellularly in the digestive tract. Which of the following organs is most likely to be inhabited by endoparasites?

A. Gall bladder
B. Spleen
C. Adrenal gland
D. Trachea

Answer is A.

Pretty straightforward question, but I got confused by the answer choices. I thought the tract only referred to the esophagus, stomach, and small intestine, and is different from the digestive system, which refers to the tract and the accessory organs that secrete enzymes for additional nutrient breakdown (i.e. gall bladder). Wikipedia seems to support this. Am I right or is EK right?

Even if you thought that the digestive tract didn't include accessory organs, what choice would you pick instead of A? No matter how you define the digestive tract, the gall bladder is the "most correct" answer choice. The trachea = respiratory system, adrenal gland = endocrine system, and spleen = immune system/blood. None of those choices are associated with the digestive tract, unlike the gall bladder. The process of elimination gets you to the right answer.

While in some cases GI tract refers primarily to the stomach and intestine, using the question and the answer choices will generally clarify whether they're referring to the entire digestive system or not. In this case, based on the answer choices, it's obvious that they're referring to all the accessory organs as well. Make sure to keep this in mind when approaching future questions. Also, it's highly unlikely that the MCAT will ask you to differentiate between the digestive tract and the digestive system. So I guess you and Wikipedia are both right. Just keep your definition a bit more flexible based on what the question stem asks for.

Hope this helps.

 

[apoptosis123]

I know the gall bladder is the closest right answer, I just wanted to make sure something like this wouldn't come up again... but I guess I should've just used POE and not looked into it too deeply. Thanks for the clarification!

 

[Charles_Carmichael]

I know the gall bladder is the closest right answer, I just wanted to make sure something like this wouldn't come up again... but I guess I should've just used POE and not looked into it too deeply. Thanks for the clarification!

It's unlikely that you'll get an ambiguous question stem on the real MCAT that would make you question what it is they're referring to but, like I said, having a little bit of flexibility in your definition and doing things like looking at answer choices, etc, really makes things easier. Don't stick to a strict definition you learned in class or saw on Wikipedia. Be a little bit fluid and use that critical thinking!