Today we were practicing our questionnaire on inpatients again before we start the actual study. The patient we met:
Male, age 54, came in for yellowing of the skin
and extreme fatigue for 8 months.
Recently with palpitations, not able to walk a city block. Recent
nausea, vomiting. No past medical
history, and certainly no history of Chagas (we had a lot of Chagas
questions). He explained he was getting
treated for anemia, and had some parasite eating his blood.
We looked at his chart to fill in some
gaps. He came to the ER with surprisingly normal vitals, and his hemoglobin (red blood cells, they carry oxygen and are quite important) was 2.6.
No, not 12.6, which is the average for the population. Check out this chart to see how far off he
has fallen, and how most people at that level would be long dead. Eosinophils 10. He two tests where people looked in his stool
with a microscope, one which found the parasite- Strongyloides
stercoralis. He was transfused red blood
cells, and is doing well now, awaiting confirmatory tests (likely culture of stool
in agar) before starting treatment.
An equally likely explanation was the hospitals labs were off, but I don't think that's the case here.
No comments:
Post a Comment
I know it might take a few clicks to make a comment but I really appreciate hearing from everyone! It can be hard to put yourself out there on the internet but great to know people are listening : )
p.s. If you can, sign your name please!