Question for upcoming test

[joejoe97]

Hello everyone,

If a patient comes to a medical practitioner with a fever of 39 degrees Celsius, malaise, and blue spots on the legs, what would you do first? Measure blood pressure, check for neck stiffness, check the body temperature or take blood samples and why would you do this first. Thanks for answering!

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[trs88]

Is this from your homework assignment?

 

[joejoe97]

Is this from your homework assignment?

We were given a practice test for our upcoming exam. It's purely for our own use and will not be graded however I would like to understand what the right answer is and why because to me it seems quite debatable where you start with the physical exam in this case. Both checking for neck stiffness for meningitis and measuring the blood pressure for potential septic shock seem okay to start with to me.

 

[trs88]

We were given a practice test for our upcoming exam. It's purely for our own use and will not be graded however I would like to understand what the right answer is and why because to me it seems quite debatable where you start with the physical exam in this case. Both checking for neck stiffness for meningitis and measuring the blood pressure for potential septic shock seem okay to start with to me.

Thanks for the explanation. I was trying to figure out where this type of question came from because it's a little lacking in info for it to be from one of the q banks. I'm still hung up on the blue spots.

 

[Donald Juan]

Get a full set of vitals would almost always be first. You need to know how emergent this is.

 

[Xorthos]

So this is a tough question, but those symptoms point to gonococcal meningitis. After vitals, neck stiffness would be the quickest thing to do since it takes about 10 seconds and can give a huge clue to the diagnosis.

As for the blue spots, rashes that look like bruises can be a sign of gonococcal meningitis. I think that’s the big clue.

 

[Freeinfinity]

When in doubt, the ABCs. I agree with vitals first. So checking blood pressure would be the best answer based on your choices.