Assignment: Disorder differential diagnosis
Assignment: Disorder differential diagnosis
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PART No. 1:
A five-month-old Caucasian female is brought into the clinic as the parent complain that she has been having ongoing foul-smelling , greasy diarrhea. She seems to be small for her age and a bit sickly but, her parent’s state that she has a huge appetite. Upon examination you find that the patient is wheezing and you observe her coughing.
· Write a differential diagnosis of at least three (3) disorders and explain why each might be a possibility and any potential weaknesses of each differential.
· Why is it that the later in age this disease manifest itself, the less severe the disease is?
· What tests would you run to clarify your differential and potentially come to a definitive diagnosis?
· If the same child was African in ancestry would this change your initial differential? Why or why not?
PART No. 2:
Tammy is a 33-year-old who presents for evaluation of a cough. She reports that about 3 weeks ago she developed a “really bad cold” with rhinorrhea. The cold seemed to go away but then she developed a profound, deep, mucus-producing cough. Now, there is no rhinorrhea or rhinitis—the primary problem is the cough. She develops these coughing fits that are prolonged, very deep, and productive of a lot of green sputum. She hasn’t had any fever but does have a scratchy throat. Tammy has tried over-the-counter cough medicines but has not had much relief. The cough keeps her awake at night and sometimes gets so bad that she gags and dry heaves.
· Write a differential of at least three (3) possible diagnosis’s and explain how each may be a possible answer to the clinical presentation above. Remember, to list the differential in the order of most likely to less likely.
· Based upon what you have at the top of the differential how would you treat this patient?
· Suppose now, the patient has a fever of 100.4 and complains of foul smelling mucous and breath. Indeed, she complains of producing cups of mucous some days. She has some trouble breathing on moderate exertion but this is only a minor complaint to her. How does this change your differential and why? à Bronchiectasis p. 1256 can happen after an infection
