Monday, October 31, 2011

Lemon

Happy Halloween!

A young man presents with early systemic manifestations of a curious disease occurring one to two months after its initial onset. He comes to the medical system because of palpitations. You take an EKG and note something very peculiar. He goes from first degree AV block to second degree AV block to complete heart block to first degree AV block over the course of minutes. The patient works at a national park.

Challenge: A lot of clues in this case point to what disease?

Image is in the public domain.

1 comment:

Craig said...

Lemon

This is lyme carditis. The image shows a deer tick, which is the carrier of Borrelia burgdorferi, the spirochete that causes Lyme disease.

Sources: UpToDate; Wikipedia.