Monday, February 13, 2012

b2-4ac


You receive this pathology specimen which is a liver biopsy in a 50 year old drinker who presented with fever, jaundice, and anorexia. Exam showed hepatomegaly, a mildly tender liver, and a bruit heard over the liver. The patient was mildly confused, had some asterixis, and had a guaiac positive stool.

Challenge: What's your most likely diagnosis?

Image shown under Creative Commons Attribution Share-Alike License.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

alcoholic hepatitis?

Craig said...

good identification
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b2-4ac

b2-4ac is the discriminant for the quadratic equation. In medicine, the discriminant function is used to determine the severity of alcoholic hepatitis and whether steroids should be given. The image shows Mallory bodies.

Sources: UpToDate; Wikipedia.