Where all your ID needs are met! Sort of.
In part two of “Ticks and Us” we look at two related viruses that come from ticks and lead to the same symptoms as any tick-borne illness, namely flu-like illness with thrombocytopenia and transaminitis: the Heartland and severe fever and thrombocytopenia syndrome virus! Heartland Virus: The heartland virus is part of the Phenuviridae family, genus
Unfortunately, i have not being able to figure out how to rotate some of the images on WordPress, despite my google docs being in the correct configuration. Hence, some tables are rotated the wrong way. Do know I tried to fix it. I have been putting off writing about this since the immunology behind this
Trying to figure out if a febrile patient showing up to the ED is having a bacterial infection is a conundrum. The main concern is bacteremia, since it confers higher mortality depending on the type of bacteremia a patient has. Inflammatory markers such as CRP and the neutrophil-to-lymphocyte ratio are relatively useful surrogates that may
Originally described as a pathogen in 1923, Corynebacterium equi was isolated from the lungs of ten foals (aka a young horse) who had pneumonia (1). Its name was later changed to rhodococcus (aka red coccus), and can be mistaken for mycobacterium spp due to its sometimes acid-fast appearance (2). It is known to infect horses,
Central lines are cool, for the most part. Except for when they’re infected. The pathophysiology behind these is explained in this diagram (1): Microorganisms gain access to the extraluminal or intraluminal surface of the device. Both skin and hub may be the important entry point of organisms, with the development of biofilm contributing to their
Topics dealing with tropical medicine are difficult to tackle, as I am never quite sure where to begin. Do I talk about their epidemiology or the clinical presentation? I’ll never recognize one and even if I did, I could offer no therapy outside of “supportive management.” Chikungunya is one of these diseases. This is a
Coccidioides (from now on, called Cocci) is an endemic fungi that exists in two forms, yeast and mold, that is endemic to the southeastern United States (1). It is related to both Histoplasma and Blastomyces with two species known to infect humans. C. immitis and C. posadasii. Arthroconidia can be transported in soil or fomites,
PETs. We all love them. I have two of those, if the pictures in my “about me” page are any indication as well as the main pic of this post. This post will not cover our beloved (and sometimes only) friends. No, we will be talking about positron emission tomography, an imaging modality we usually
I have a love-hate relationship with the urinalysis. It is one of the cheapest and quickest way to get a good idea of what is going on in the kidney, from its less used specific gravity, to the more well known microscopic examination that may involve the presence of casts, it is a widely available
I absolutely love this song. I tried to learn how to play it on guitar, but I think you may need 7 strings for it, at least when I checked back in the day. This week we are adding to last week’s topic and talking about when and what type of echo to get. There
Dr. Germophile 