Veterinary Medical Pathology and Clinical Epidemiology

The course aims to provide the student to the notions about the dysfunctions and diseases, which are prevalent in Veterinary Medicine. The course should give the understanding of the pathophysiological mechanisms underlying the pathologies commonly involving the hematopoietic, gastroenteric, respiratory, urinary and endocrine system, pointing out the aetiology, signs and symptoms, the clinical course and the procedures needed for the diagnosis.
The course of Clinical Epidemiology aims to provide the student with the knowledge of deciding the most appropriate study design and the organization of the diagnostic work-up. The meaning of prognostic variables, the measures of risk to describe the clinical events and/or the outcome of the chronic-degenerative disease will be analyzed as well.  The canine and feline cardiac diseases will be utilized to introduce survival and prognostic studies. The uses of the main electronic database (eg Scopus, Pubmed, WOS, Google Scholar), will be recommended to deepen the topics dealt with in lesson.
The attention will be focused on the scientific and practical usefulness of the use of medical record, of the anamnestic and clinical data organization, finalized on the optimization of the diagnostic workup.

Expected learning outcomes (nuovo testo da inserire in W4)
At the end of the course the student must have acquired the skills listed below:
1- Knowledge and understanding:
Students should demonstrate the knowledge of the pathophysiological mechanisms, clinical symptoms, and the diagnostic procedures (including the laboratory tests and imaging) useful for the diagnosis of the more common internal medicine diseases in domestic animals (infectious, parasitic, metabolic or chronic degenerative). The aetiological aspects will not be underestimated.
The student should be able to undertand the different studies utilized in clinical research (case report, studies of cohort, case / control studies, clinical trials, metanalysis and the systematic revisions), and the statistic tests generally employees in epidemiological and clinical studies as the survival analysis with the method of Kaplan Maier, log rank test and model of the proportional risks of Cox. The lectures will deal with the epidemiological, pathophysiological and clinical aspects related to the pathologies of the cardiovascular system.
2- Ability to apply knowledge:
The student should demonstrate that he / she will able to apply the acquired knowledge to frame the pathologies described above. Moreover, the student should also demonstrates to have acquired the knowledge to understand the survival studies, and the different study designs used in the scientific literature.
3- Autonomy of judgment:
The student should learn critically and proactively both the information provided by the teacher and those derived from the recommended textbooks. Furthermore he/she should be able to identify and use properly the web's scientific scientific sources.
He/she will be able to formulate diagnostic hypotheses based on clinical signs, symptoms, outcome and the results of the collateral tests carried out.
The students should be able to judge the font of the literature. Moreover, the predictivity value of the laboratory parameters and the normal/abnormal electrocardiographic and echocardiographic features should be recognized 
4- Communication skills:
The student should be able to display the concepts acquired with appropriate and updated terminology, updated and consistent with the terminology used in other disciplines, during the lectures and the practical lessons. In addition, the student must acquire the ability to communicate these concepts to common people (eg pet's owner, breeders, etc.) . The final target will be the ability not only to communicate, but also to write the concepts studied, as well as to share the results of a clinical study