A 25 yo man presents at the ER with abrupt, intense pain in the right flank and ipsilateral lower abdomen. In addition to abdominal pains, he also feels pain in the right testicle and has had to urinate frequently and always with pain. Imaging was done to aid in assessment.
Given this information, what diagnosis might you suggest? Explain the symptoms and what is revealed by the imaging. What treatment do you suggest?
As always, I invite students and non-students to submit multiple choice questions appropriate for the upcoming exam on the Renal System (Physiology and Pathophysiology questions). Post questions with answers (three wrong and one right) in the comments section below.
Also, here’s an opportunity for two points of extra credit on the upcoming exam:
Submit your answer quick – only the first correct response (also posted in comments) earns points. I will try to post several more questions over the weekend – note, these extra credit vignettes may come from any of the chapters we studied this semester)
Presentation
A 62 year old man presented at the ER with sudden sensation of food being caught in his throat while swallowing. The patient is highly agitated and convinced he is choking although he appears to be getting air.
An emergency endoscopy reveals food stuck in the esophagus. With pressure, food bolus passed into the stomach successfully. A subsequent barium swallow and X Ray produced the image here.
What is the diagnosis?
My microbiology class is having a special mini-exam on the Tuesday after we come back from Spring Break. This exam will cover chapters 11 and 12 of the Cowen Microbiology text, which is basically ‘how do we kill microbes outside of the body’ and ‘how do we kill microbes inside the body?’ This exam will also have elements taken directly from Exam I presented as an opportunity to retain that material and be sure that we keep these core ideas in mind.
That said, I will be happy to entertain any questions proposed by students (or non-students) on these topics.
My Pathophysiology class is having its first exam coming up soon (February 19th) and it’s time to solicit questions for the exam. Really, this is for my students, however, if non-students want to contribute questions, I’ll entertain those too.
Qualifications to be accepted:
1. Be a well-phrased question with a clear answer (this is helped somewhat by #2)
2. Provide four or five answers (for multiple choice) to the question and indicate which one is correct.
3. Be on topic (i.e. regarding the basic anatomy and physiology of the cardiovascular system, peripheral vascular disease, defects of the heart (congenital), valvular disease, hypertension, or myocardial infarction – other topical questions will be considered, but may appear as extra credit if they were not covered in class)
4. Post here as a reply to this blog entry so that it is visible to others.
Exam II in Microbiology happens this Tuesday. If only there was some less stressful way of studying for the exam. Perhaps a puzzle to kick back and contemplate …?
(As an aside, I really don’t like the way this puzzle turned out – for a crossword puzzle, there are very few words that cross. I may attempt to redo this later, but there’s an exam to write first)
Clues:
Oh No!
Autocorrect strikes again – 1 Across = the DESTRUCTION of all microbial life.
I do apologize for my poor clue-writing. I’m only a recent adopter of crosswords and I’m not yet very good at writing them the way they should appear.
(I can only solve NYTimes’ Monday puzzles)
In preparing for a new semester, I’ve been downloading a few free question compilations for the TEAS test. TEAS is the ‘Test of Essential Academic Skills’ that students wishing to enter into nursing programs must take. Since many of my students in both my Biology and Microbiology classes wish to enter nursing programs and are taking required classes for that purpose, I find these questions to be very useful in directing my syllabus creation.
However, today, I found this question amongst the free samples offered at the practicequiz.com website:
Category – Science
Q – What is a term used to describe the subtle energy running through the body? A. The Tao B. The Force C. Chi D. ATP Your answer: – Answer: C – Chi is a term used for the subtle energy that runs through the body.
Chi is specific to Traditional Chinese Medicine. Other terms used are ki, prana and life force.
What am I to think?
I’m not sure that I am comfortable with ‘Chi’ being a legitimate concept being taught in science classes.
Am I wrong to think that the science and medicine taught to students of these disciplines should be objectively verifiable? Is ‘Chi’ a documented phenomenon? Or is this just a word / description that describes some metaphysical concept?
Wikipedia uses the following to define Chi:
“Qi is the central underlying principle in traditional Chinese medicine and martial arts…Elements of the qi concept can also be found in Western popular culture, for example “The Force” in Star Wars.”
Given this loose definition for an equally loose concept, I think “The Force” is an equally reasonable answer to the question as it is posed. And no answer to this question should be acceptable or expected in a serious exam. I certainly hope that this question is an example made up by practicequiz.com, and not one that my students are ever likely to see on a real examination.
See this link for a review of chi, also known as qi or qidong, in medicine.
Mixed Culture
Despite the surfeit of responses to my call for General Biology Test questions earlier this week that I had to wade through (read sarcastically), I thought I would yet again offer the opportunity for anyone (Students!?) to present potential test questions. If there is anyone out there who would like to try their hand at it, please respond here in the comments section with your proposed question(s).
Topics for this exam include:
-Laboratory techniques (primarily microscopy and culturing methods)
-Cell composition/organelles/functions, comparing and contrasting prokaryotes and eukaryotes
-Prokaryotic cell biology
-Eukaryotic cell biology
-Viral biology
-metabolism / flow of energy through living systems
-cell culture / growth patterns / nutrition
