Pediculosis and Syphilis Summary Slide Flashcards
How is pediculosis caused? How can you diagnose it?
Three types of lice: 1. head (schoolkids: scalp esp behind ear) 2. body (homeless, itchy at night, on clothes) 3. pubic (promiscuous, itchy groin);
diagnose by eye, magnifying glass, microscope
Where are head, body, and pubic nits found? What are the shapes of head, body, and pubic lice? How do you treat pediculosis? In case of pubic lice what must be done?
Hair, clothes, hair; elongated, elongated, wide (crabs);
treat with two rounds of insecticide ten days apart, nit combing, and hot laundering, then inform classmates, family members, partners, children, etc.; full STD panel
What would you use to identify treponema? Why?
Darkfield (too small for light microscopy and can’t gram stain!)
Treponema can’t be _____. It invades ______ and _______ right away
cultured; lymphatics and bloodstream
What is treponema’s virulence based on? How can it be transmitted? What about yaws and pinta?
Immune invasion; sexually and congenitally; direct contact
What do humans raise against treponema? What are the four stages of syphilis characterized by?
Primarily useless antibodies (like reagin); 1: painless chancre, 2: body-wide rashes, condylymata lata, patchy alopecia, latency period, 3: gummas, neurosyphilis, cardiac involvement
What does neurosyphilis consist of?
Tabes dorsalis, general paresis, meningitis, look for Argyll-Robertson pupil
What does diagnosis of syphilis depend on?
Assembling accurate timecourse of the varied symptoms: patients could ignore early ones that appeared to resolve spontaneously
____ ____ kills _____ fetus/newborns, survivors are ________, bone deformities, _____ ________, progress rapidly to symptoms of ______ and ______ ________ if untreated
congenital syphilis; 50%; infected; interstitial keratitis; secondary and tertiary syphilis
What is the best test for syphilis-in-progress? How can you confirm exposure? What would histo of lesions show?
Syphilis serology for reagin (VDRL, RPR; ideal at secondary syphilis stage); tests for treponeme-specific antibodies; infiltrate rich in plasma cells
How do you treat syphilis?
Penicillin G
