Practice question Throwing me off a bit

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NYMedKidd22

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Hey all!

Doing a practice test, came across a question..

"A coma may result from an excessive amount of insulin. This excess is due to..."
A Depletion of norepinephrine
B Depletion of epinephrine
C Depletion of blood sugar
D Excessively high blood sugar
E Excessively high level of both epinephrine and norepinephrine


I chose D, but the key says the answer is C.

Isn't insulin's function to reduce blood glucose levels? This question, to me at least, is asking what may cause an excessive amount of insulin? - wouldn't that be because it was an attempt to lower an excessively high blood glucose level like D implies? and
Not that there's an excess of insulin because of depleted glucose levels?

If anyone can help, I'd appreciate it!🙂
 
Insulin's function is to lower blood glucose level.

Blood glucose goes into cells

Excess insulin:

Lots of blood glucose into cells

therefore not enough glucose in the blood (depletion of blood sugar), therefore coma.
 
You're over thinking it. It's saying a coma is caused by too much insulin = not enough blood sugar (after glucose removed too much of it). We need glucose for energy and thus if excess insulin depleted all the glucose, then we have no energy to do much except pass out into a coma.
 
i think the question is asking what happened based just on the high level of insulin. while it can be true that high amount of insulin was caused by elevated blood glucose level, it's not really what the question is asking. high amount of insulin causes hypoglycemia, especially for those who may have hyperinsulinemic. insulin level can be elevated due to daily dosage of insulin shot to a diabetic who hadn't eaten enough to compensate for that amount insulin.

basically, choice C is correct because severe hypoglycemia caused by high level of insulin will result in a coma.
 
Hey all!

Doing a practice test, came across a question..

"A coma may result from an excessive amount of insulin. This excess is due to..."
A Depletion of norepinephrine
B Depletion of epinephrine
C Depletion of blood sugar
D Excessively high blood sugar
E Excessively high level of both epinephrine and norepinephrine


I chose D, but the key says the answer is C.

Isn't insulin's function to reduce blood glucose levels? This question, to me at least, is asking what may cause an excessive amount of insulin? - wouldn't that be because it was an attempt to lower an excessively high blood glucose level like D implies? and
Not that there's an excess of insulin because of depleted glucose levels?

If anyone can help, I'd appreciate it!🙂

i'm with you on this one. if it had said "this coma is due to..." or "this excess causes..." then C would be correct. but they asked what the "excess" meaning the excessive insulin was due to...the way they phrased it takes "coma" out of the equation completely.

anyway, you can see what they were getting at and as long as you're good on what insulin does don't stress over this particular question.
 
i'm with you on this one. if it had said "this coma is due to..." or "this excess causes..." then C would be correct. but they asked what the "excess" meaning the excessive insulin was due to...the way they phrased it takes "coma" out of the equation completely.

anyway, you can see what they were getting at and as long as you're good on what insulin does don't stress over this particular question.


the question should have been more specific ( i think) but i can see why the answer is NOT d and c.
 
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