While on tour, a 32 year old male musician has presented to the emergency department of a hospital after a concert complaining of severe and sudden abdominal pain. He admits to a history of copious alcohol use in recent years, and his vital signs include temperature 101.8°F, blood pressure 89/48 mm HG and heart rate 116 beats per minute. Blood work indicates that his serum levels of C-reactive protein, amylase and lipase are all elevated. Which of the following diagnoses would the care team suspect first?

A. Decision-making, problem-solving, and planning: The frontal lobe is primarily responsible for higher-order executive functions such as reasoning, decision-making, problem-solving, judgment, and planning. It also plays a role in personality and voluntary motor control, especially through the prefrontal cortex and motor areas.

B. Vision and color recognition: These functions are associated with the occipital lobe, which is located at the back of the brain and specializes in processing visual input, including aspects like color, shape, and motion.

C. Language comprehension and memory: Language comprehension is primarily controlled by Wernicke’s area, which is located in the temporal lobe. Memory is also associated with the temporal lobe and the limbic system structures like the hippocampus.

D. Movement coordination and balance: These are functions of the cerebellum, which regulates fine motor control, coordination, balance, and posture—not the frontal lobe.

A. Tubular necrosis: Tubular necrosis refers to the death of tubular epithelial cells in the kidneys, commonly due to ischemia or toxins. This is not the primary defect in Potter syndrome, which involves developmental abnormalities rather than acute tubular injury.

B. Renal hyperplasia: Hyperplasia means increased cell number leading to organ enlargement. Potter syndrome typically involves renal hypoplasia or agenesis rather than hyperplasia, so this is not consistent with the syndrome’s defect.

C. Renal failure: Potter syndrome primarily results from bilateral renal agenesis or severe renal dysplasia, leading to absent or nonfunctional kidneys and subsequent renal failure. The lack of functional kidneys leads to oligohydramnios and the characteristic features of Potter syndrome.

D. Renal metaplasia: Metaplasia refers to abnormal transformation of one differentiated tissue type into another. This process is not the main defect in Potter syndrome, which is related to kidney development failure rather than abnormal tissue differentiation.