Cases Flashcards
A 75-year-old man is brought by his family for evaluation of behavioral changes. The man was previously highly functional but has developed confusion, inattentiveness, and insomnia that have progressively worsened over a month. The family also notes his gait is unstable. On exam, he has signs of cerebellar ataxia and myoclonus. Workup including CT, MRI/MRA, and toxicology screen is unremarkable, and Gram stain, viral PCR, and cytology of CSF are unrevealing. Over the next month, the patient has worsening myoclonic jerking and cognitive impairment, and on the fourth week, he dies. Autopsy reveals myriad microscopic holes throughout the cerebral cortex giving a sponge-like appearance.
CJD
A patient from a tropical village has an enormously swollen scrotum and lower extremity. The skin around the swelling has become scaly and thick. The patient remembers feeling enlarged nodes in the groin months before the swelling began, but because of poor health resources in the area, he never saw a physician. Samples of his blood drawn at night show wormlike organisms under a microscope. A visiting doctor strongly recommends that the patient and other villagers sleep with a mosquito net to prevent more infections.
Wucheria Bancrofti
A traveling physician visits a remote riverside village in a South American country and discovers that most of the older village inhabitants are blind. On physical exam of some of the members, she notes skin nodules and hyperpigmented rashes. To prevent other village members from becoming blind, she administers donated ivermectin to many people in the village and urges mosquito control.
Oncocherca Volvulus
An elderly man develops low-grade fever and signs of endocarditis over a period of 2 weeks. Following blood culture, his doctor also becomes concerned about possible colon cancer.
Group D Streptococcus Bovis
Most common causes of meningitis in 60 yrs:
S. pneumoniae
Gram negative rods
Listeria
A middle-aged woman presents with low-grade fever and general malaise. Physical exam reveals Janeway lesions, Osler’s nodes, Roth’s spots, and splinter hemorrhages under her fingernails. Echocardiogram indicates vegetations on the mitral valve. In the doctor’s office, she recounts a dentist appointment a few weeks ago and several bouts of sore throat as a child.
Streptococcus Viridans group -> strep mutans (normal mouth flora) and strep intermedius (brain or abdominal abcesses)
A mother brings her 2-month-old infant to the hospital because he exhibits fever, convulsions, irritability, and poor eating.
The pediatrician-in-training notes a widespread rash and a stiff neck on physical exam. She orders a spinal tap that reveals low glucose, ↑ PMNs, ↑ protein, and Gram rods with “tumbling” motility in cultures. Upon further questioning, the pediatrician discovers that the mother does not breast-feed and feeds her baby with fresh cow’s milk.
Listeria Monocytogenes
A young immigrant girl goes to the doctor complaining of a sore throat and difficulties in breathing and swallowing. Her voice is unusually nasal and a large gray mucous film is noticed on the oropharynx. The patient also exhibits ST-T wave changes on an electrocardiogram and a slight paralysis of her tongue. Her blood pressure is low, her lungs edematous, and her neurological examination shows cranial nerve problems. Her physician begins immediate treatment and orders a potassium tellurite culture to confirm his worst suspicions.
Corynebacterium Diptheriae
Most common causes of meningitis 6–60 yrs:
N. meningitidis Enterovirus (aseptic meningitis)
S. pneumoniae
A 2-year-old girl returns to her pediatrician with fevers, recurrent ear pain, and new onset yellow discharge from the right ear. She had been diagnosed earlier in the week with right otitis media and treated with amoxicillin. The pediatrician correctly suspects that a beta-lactamase–producing organism is causing the infection, and had he gram stained the ear discharge, he would have found gram-negative diplococci.
Moraxella catarrhalis
A woman who recently returned from a trip to South America complains of a persistent high fever, malaise, and constipation that has lasted for over a week. She recalls that the fever began slowly and climbed its way up to the current 41°C. A physical exam reveals that she has an enlarged spleen and a generally tender abdomen with red macules. The physician asks for a stool sample to complete the diagnosis.
Salmonella Typhii
A veterinary school student complains to the doctor of diarrhea and abdominal tenderness. He is certain that these symptoms followed nausea and vomiting the day before. He admits that he may have caused himself this misery by excessively playing with his turtle.
Salmonella Enterididis
A woman returns to the doctor because of an annoying and persistent urinary tract infection. The woman’s complaint of dysuria motivates more diagnostic tests, revealing the presence of large radiopaque stones in the urinary tract. The woman also provides several urine samples, which are consistently high in pH.
Proteus Mirabilis > swarming motility, urease positive
Weil-Felix Reaction utilizes the O antigen of Proteus bacteria to diagnose Ricketsia infections
A man visiting India arrives in the emergency room with signs of severe dehydration: He is thirsty, has decreased skin turgor, tachycardia, and somnolence. He abruptly began to suffer from diarrhea this morning and complains about the magnanimous watery volumes he is excreting. He has no fever, and the doctor treats with fluid and electrolytes.
Vibrio Cholera -> gram negative, polar flagella comma shaped rod
-Cholera toxin is carried on bacteriophage.
A man and his two sons just returned from a vacation on their relative’s farm. All three arrive complaining of bloody diarrhea. The youngest son becomes well spontaneously. The older son complains of right flank pain, while the father starts to notice tenderness in his joints. One surgeon, worried about appendicitis in the older son, performs the initial incisions and discovers a normal appendix but an inflamed colon. After also observing swollen mesenteric lymph nodes during surgery, he makes a diagnosis explaining the symptoms in all three patients.
Yersinia Enterocolitica
- gram negative rod, motile at 25 degrees but not at 37
- causes septic arthritis as well
An aged man comes to the hospital complaining of upper abdominal pains, which become worse after a meal. Knowing
the patient’s history, the doctor is about to prescribe an H2 blocker and send the patient on his way, just as he has done for many patients before this one. However, biopsy of the stomach mucosa and urease breath test lead the doctor to prescribe antibiotics in addition to treatment for peptic ulcer.
H. Pylori
- urease positive
- Chronic H. pylori gastritis is associated with gastric adenocarcinoma and MALT lymphoma.
A man with fever, muscle pains, and headache feels no need to go to the doctor until about 1 day later, when he develops diarrhea and abdominal pain as well. The abdominal pain is so severe that his physician fears appendicitis until learning that the man may have had unpasteurized milk in the past week. A definitive diagnosis is made by growth on stool culture at 42°C, microaerophilic conditions.
Campylobacter Jejuni
- invades terminal ileum/colon
- associated with Guillian-Barre (ascending paralysis)
gram-negative rod anaerobes, are found in the upper airways (“above the diaphragm”) and can cause pulmonary
abscesses that can be treated with penicillin G.
Bacteriodes melaninogenicus and Fusobacterium nucleatum
A 1-year-old infant develops a fever but really begins to alarm her parents when she seems unusually drowsy. The parents bring her to the hospital and the doctor notices neck rigidity and occasional seizures. The doctor identifies an organism in the infant’s cerebrospinal fluid that requires both hemin and NAD to grow. The infant recovers after ceftriaxone is administered but seems to have acquired a partial hearing loss.
Haemophylis Influenzae, Type B is encapsulated
shows + Quellung Test (capsule)
- coccobacilli
- decreased incidence due to HiB vaccination conjugated with diptheria toxin
HACEK organisms (Haemophilus species, Actinobacillus actinomycetemcomitans, Cardiobacterium hominis, Eikenella corrodens, and Kingella species)
gram-negative bacilli that are part of normal oral flora and can infect heart valves. They are the most common gram-negative cause of endocarditis in non-IV drug users.
A 67-year-old man with a history of heavy smoking comes to the doctor complaining of “the flu.” He has a fever, loss of appetite, headache, chest pain, and a mild cough producing little sputum. The doctor believes that the watery diarrhea that the man also suffers from is related. Sputum sample reveals many neutrophils but no bacteria. CXR reveals nodular infiltrates. Serum tests are negative for cold agglutinins.
Legionella pneumophila is an important cause of community-acquired pneumonia in elderly smokers. Severe atypical pneumonia
- Gram stains poorly, visualize with silver stain. Coccobacilli
- intracellular
- culture on charcoal yeast extract with iron and cysteine
A doctor is struggling to diagnose a woman’s flulike illness. She complains of a fever that rises during the day and peaks after dinner, fatigue, spinal tenderness, and loss of appetite. Her lymph nodes are enlarged in physical exam. The doctor has trouble narrowing down the possible etiologies until he hears that the woman tasted goat cheese at a local French village a month before the onset of her symptoms.
Brucella
-Gram - , coccobacilli, facultative intracellular
Osteomyelitis is the most common complication.
Brucellosis in the U.S. most commonly occurs from ingestion of imported goat cheese that is poorly pasteurized.
A woman from Arkansas presents to the doctor with a small but persistent black ulcer on her arm. The area near the ulcer is erythematous and tender. Her axillary lymph nodes on the same side are enlarged. She believes the ulcer may be related to a tick bite that occurred on her arm while tending to her rabbit farm.
tularemias (site-specific infection lymphadenopathy): ulceroglandular tularemia
oculoglandular tularemia
pulmonary tularemia
typhoidal tularemia
Diagnosis:
skin test (DTH response)
serology
cultures rarely performed because organism highly infectious
A homeless man enters the hospital with wasting and fever. He has had a chronic cough for several months producing bloody sputum as well as night sweats. CXR reveals cavitations with air-fluid levels in the apex of his left lung. Diagnosis is confirmed by an acid-fast stain of sputum.
Mycobacterium Tuberculosis
A sexually active man seeks medical attention for a wart-like lesion developing on his genitals. He recalls a painless ulcer
on his genitals over a month ago, but now is concerned because papules are appearing in his armpits and palms as well. Recently, he has also suffered fever and chills, and the doctor notices a nontender, generalized lymphadenopathy. The doctor questions the man about the health of his sexual partners. A dark-field analysis confirms the doctor’s suspicion of the etiology and the patient is prescribed penicillin G.
What is this patient at risk for down the road?
What would a congenital infection with this bacteria cause?
Treponema pallidum
- Will begin to develop condyloma lata (2ndary syphillis)
- gummas, neurosyphylis, tabes dorsalis, Argyl Robertson pupil, aortic aneurysm
Congenital syphilis: CN VIII deafness, mulberry molars, saber shins, saddle nose, Hutchinson’s incisors
Treponema pallidum subspecies cause nonvenereal skin ulcers and skin/bone gummas:
T. pallidum endemicum → endemic syphilis (common
in Africa, Middle East)
T. pallidum pertenue → Yaws (gummas disfigure face)
T. pallidum carateum → Pinta (red → blue → white lesions, limited to Latin America).
A woman seeks medical attention for a skin rash expanding on her arm over several days. Her doctor notes an annular, red rash with a clear area in the center. The woman also complains of a fever, headache, arthralgias, and stiffness of the neck following the onset of the rash by a week. When asked if bitten by any insects, the woman cannot answer definitively, but she does remember seeing a tick on her sleeping bag during a camping trip to Connecticut last month. The doctor prescribes doxycycline and checks the woman’s electrocardiogram to ensure no heart problems have developed as a result of her illness.
What would this organism show on skin biopsy?
Coinfections?
Borellia burgdorferi
spirochete, motile under darkfield microscopy
diagnosis via serology
- possible coinfection w/ Babesiosis (both xferred via Ixodes tick)
- Babesiosis causes hemolytic anemia and fever, asymptomatic usually in immunocompetent patients.
A farmer comes to the EW with a 1-week history of flu-like symptoms with photophobia. His severe headache, cough, and myalgias suggest to the physician some kind of respiratory infection. However, more careful physical exam reveals conjunctival suffusion and macular rash. Lab findings include elevated serum bilirubin, alkaline phosphatase, aminotransferases, and creatine phosphokinase. With this clinical picture and lab results, the physician prescribes penicillin G immediately. His suspicions are confirmed later when a spirochete is isolated from the patient’s blood.
Leptospira interrogans
A young woman at an army base thinks she has a cold and goes to her doctor. She complains of malaise, chills, sore throat, and dry cough. CXR shows interstitial infiltrate more severe than suggested by her symptoms. Laboratory tests indicate that the woman’s serum was capable of agglutinating erythrocytes when incubated at 4°C. The doctor prescribes erythromycin.
How is this diagnosed?
Mycoplasma Pneumonia
“atypical” pneumonia (walking pneumonia)
cold hemagglutination
no cell wall, fried-egg appearance (2–3 wk culture on Eaton’s agar) serology
Two obligate intracellular parasites (require host ATP for energy):
Chlamydiae
Rickettsiae
Chlamydiae replicate within
inclusion bodies, Rick ettsiae replicate freely in cytoplasm.
A woman is brought to the EW complaining of vaginal discharge and RUQ abdominal pain. On history, the patient reports having many sexual partners. Pelvic exam reveals cervical motion tenderness, and labs of vaginal discharge detect numerous PMNs but no organisms on Gram stain. The doctor makes a diagnosis based on these findings and administers doxycycline and ceftriaxone. Later, surgeons, concerned about the patient’s abdominal pain, rule out cholecystitis by imaging, but laparoscopy reveals adhesions around the patient’s liver capsule.
How is this diagnosed?
Chlamydia Trachomatis
Nucleic acid amplification (PCR, transcription-mediated amplification)
visualize intracytoplasmic inclusions: iodine stain (inclusions contain glycogen), Giemsa stain serology
cultured in cell lines (intracellular growth)
A 22-year-old student presents with a nonproductive cough, fever, and sore throat. CXR demonstrates diffuse interstitial infiltrate. Sputum Gram stain shows many PMNs but no organisms, and a Giemsa stain reveals intracytoplasmic inclusions in epithelial cells. Doxycycline treatment is begun.
Chlamydia Pneumoniae
A 10-year-old boy in Virginia presents with a rash, fever, and a severe headache that began several days ago. The rash began on his palms and soles and has now spread centrally to his trunk. His pediatrician also notes conjunctival redness, and lab studies show proteinuria. The boy’s history is significant for a hike in the woods a week ago. The child is given tetracycline, and his diagnosis is confirmed by a Weil-Felix test.
Where does this organism specifically target?
Where do these organisms replicate?
Rickettsia Rickettsii
targets endothelial cells
obligate intracellular organism that replicates in the cytoplasm
A Kosovo refugee sees a volunteer camp doctor complaining of a rash spreading outward from his trunk but sparing his palms and soles. Two days ago, he experienced abrupt onset of fever, headaches, and confusion. On physical exam, the doctor discovers lice in the man’s hair. The doctor treats with a delousing regimen and tetracycline. Were he at a hospital, he might confirm the diagnosis with a Weil-Felix test.
How is this organism spread? what is the reservoir?
How do you differentiate between epidemic and RMSF?
What causes the endemic infection of tis organism, in South Texas and California?
Rickettsia Prowarzekii
- human-to-human spread via louse responsible for epidemics during war
- flying squirrel is the reservoir
Epidemic typhus (R. prowazekii) causes a rash that spreads outwardly but avoids the palms, soles, and face vs. Rocky Mountain Spotted Fever (R. rickettsii) that causes a rash that spreads proximally from the palms and soles.
-R. typhi: fleas transmit from rodents to humans → endemic typhus found in South Texas and California
A cattle farmer goes to his doctor complaining of a mild cough and fever. He says that the fever began abruptly several days ago. His occupation as cattle slaughterer leads the doctor toward a diagnosis, and tetracycline is administered. The diagnosis is confirmed by serology and a negative Weil-Felix test.
How does this differ from other rickettsia infections?
Coxiella Burnetti causes fever, atypical pneumonia.
-may lead to hepatitis,endocarditis
In contrast to other Rickettsial disease:
C. burnetii does not require arthropod transmission because it can survive extracellularly as a spore.
C. burnetii does not cause rash.
A woman in India complains of fever, muscle pains, and weakness of her trunk, abdomen, and legs. This morning, she notes difficulty in swallowing and neck pain, which prompts her to come to the hospital. Physical exam reveals fasciculations and flaccid paralysis of the lower limbs and trunk. Breathing seems to be troubled. A CSF analysis reveals lymphocytosis, PMNs, and normal glucose and protein levels. The physician confirms the diagnosis by checking the woman’s vaccination history and prepares respiratory support in case her breathing difficulties worsen.
What kind of virus is this?
Poliovirus
Picovirus, also an enterovirus
-icosahedral capsid, naked virus
A young man presents with chest pain, dyspnea, and early signs of heart failure. His history shows he had an upper respiratory infection 3 weeks ago. Examination reveals tachycardia and a gallop rhythm (S3), while ECG shows evidence of a conduction defect with nonspecific ST-T changes. Echocardiogram is ordered and shows cardiomegaly with contractile dysfunction.
The doctor makes a viral diagnosis by serology and admits the patient for monitoring, assuring the patient that he will likely recover completely.
What family is this virus in?
What other serious disease can this virus cause?
Cocksackie B
-causes pleurodynia
- Cocksackie is an enterovirus, which is a member of Picovirus (neg sense ssRNA)
- nonenveloped
Naked viruses -> P.C.R (Pico, Calci, Reo)
Enteroviruses are the #1 cause of aseptic meningitis
A Boy Scouts troop master calls the doctor asking about symptoms that have developed in 7 of his 20 Scouts shortly after a camping trip. The ill boys complain of fever, nausea, loss of appetite, and vomiting. The Scout master also notes a yellow hue in some of the boys, especially visible in their eyes. Two of the affected boys are brought to the hospital where their urine is noted to be dark and their feces pale. Liver enzyme assays reveal an elevated ALT and AST level. The physician confirms the diagnosis with an assay of serum IgM and then assures the master and his Scouts that the illness will completely go away in several weeks.
How would this physician determine that this infection is no longer active?
Hepatitis A
IgG Anti-HAV