Friday, March 5, 2010

Jellyfish

A 25 year old man swimming off the coast of Northern Australia feels a sharp mildly painful sting. He returns to shore, and 30 minutes later, begins to feel severe generalized back, chest, and abdominal pain, nausea, vomiting, sweating, and agitation. Physical exam shows hypertension and tachycardia. About 12 hours later, he develops myocardial injury and pulmonary edema. The tiny jellyfish shown above, about 2cm in diameter with long tentacles, was identified as the culprit.

Challenge: This syndrome has a particular name; what is it?

Image is shown under Fair Use.

2 comments:

tree said...

irukandji syndrome

Craig said...

Jellyfish

This is Irukandji syndrome, caused by the Carukia barnesi jellyfish.

Sources: UpToDate; www.jcu.edu.au.