A 54-Year-Old Man Comes to the Emergency Department with a 3-Month

question 31

Multiple Choice

A 54-year-old man comes to the emergency department with a 3-month history of fatigue and exertional dyspnea.  He has early satiety and frequent upper abdominal discomfort.  On physical examination, the patient has palpable splenomegaly but no lymphadenopathy.  Laboratory tests are as follows: Reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction is used to diagnose chronic myelogenous leukemia in this patient.  Which of the following is most likely to be detected by this test?

• A)Chromosomal position of the BCR and ABL genes
• B)DNA rearrangement in the BCR promoter region
• C)Fusion protein containing BCR and ABL domains
• D)Messenger RNA transcript containing BCR and ABL exons
• E)Point mutation in the ABL enhancer region

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Definitions:

Genetic Factors

Elements within an organism's genes that influence its physical traits and behaviors, highlighting the role of heredity in development.

Identical Twins

Twins who have developed from a single fertilized egg and share the same genetic material, making them genetically identical.

Fraternal Twins

Twins that develop from two different eggs fertilized by two different sperm cells, genetically similar like regular siblings rather than identical twins.

Confounding Variable

A variable other than the independent variable that may cause a result or effect in an experiment, making it difficult to isolate the impact of the independent variable.