Monday, October 19, 2009

Galleon

This blood smear is from a 20 year old man complaining about acute onset severe chest pain with nausea and vomiting. He is febrile, tachypneic, and hypertensive.

Challenge: Here's a multi-step classic boards question for you - if this man had instead presented with osteomyelitis, what organism would you suspect?

Image is shown under fair use.

2 comments:

Alex said...

salmonella?

Craig said...

yep!
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Galleon

The currency in Harry Potter included Knuts, Sickles, and Galleons; this of course, is sickle cell disease. The clinical manifestation described here is the sickle cell crisis. Patients with sickle cell disease and osteomyelitis are often infected with Salmonella species.

Source: UpToDate; www.pathology.vcu.edu.