Assignment - Part A Flashcards
Russell is a 19 year old student who was diagnosed with a streptococcal infection after presenting with a sore throat, fever and headache to the Medical Centre one week ago. He has now represented to the clinic and is complaining of lower back pain, swollen face and hands, and smoky rust-coloured urine.
What is the name of the medical condition that Russell has now acquired?
Post-Streptococcal glomerulonephritis.
Excessive vagal stimulation can be caused by severe clinical depression. How would increased vagal stimulation be detected in a routine physical examination of a patient, particularly with respect to the cardiac system?
Low Heart Rate.
Daniel, a pilot for a paramedical squad, has recently been stationed to La Paz in Bolivia for 3 months. Five days after his arrival, a routine medical examination shows that his erythrocyte count is slightly elevated, his respiratory rate is above normal, and his hemoglobin O2 saturation level is slightly lower than normal. He is complaining of a headache and nausea.
(a) What condition is Daniel suffering from?
(b) What physiological processes within his body have caused his erythrocyte count to increase in the past 5 days?
(a) Hypoxia or high altitude pulmonary edema
(b) Count increases as tissues are deprived of oxygen. Thus, kidneys release erythropoietin to enhance erythrocyte production.
Steve is a 25 year old sales representative for a large industrial company.Over the past 4 weeks, he has noticed a painless, hard lump on his left testicle, a sensation of heaviness in his scrotum and lower abdominal aching. His local medical practitioner requests some blood tests, and the results show that Steve has a high level of beta-human chorionic gonadotropin hormone (HCG) in his blood. Taking into consideration the blood test results, what is the lump in Steve’s testicle?
Germ-cell Tumor –> Testicular Cancer
Jessica is a 23 year old administration officer. A very virulent intestinal virus has triggered repeated vomiting and severe diarrhoea in Jessica. After 12 hours of feeling helpless, her frantic flatmates bring her to the health clinic. Along with rehydration (replacing lost water), what specific electrolytes must also be replaced in Jessica’s body?
Potassium (K), chlorine (CL-) and Sodium (Na) must be quickly replaced to prevent further complication.
Matthew is a 21 year old university student who has been feeling tired and unwell for the past 6weeks. He has been experiencing frequent and unexplained fevers and infections, weight loss, breathlessness, loss of appetite, unexplained bruising and joint pain. He decides to see his local doctor as he thinks he has glandular fever. Blood tests reveal that he is anemic and has a high level of lymphoblasts in his blood stream. Lymphoblasts are not normally found in the bloodstream of a healthy individual. The doctor then performs a bone marrow biopsy which shows a lymphoblast count of 22% in Matthew’s bone marrow. Is Matthew suffering from glandular fever or something else? What is your provisional diagnosis? Explain your answer.
Lymphoblastic leukemia. This is evident in his symptoms. The disease causes anemia and high lymphoblast levels in the blood. Additionally, the lymphoblast count in his bone marrow is above average.