Wednesday, 18 June 2014

Scrub typhus

Etiology : orientia tsutsugamushi
Transmission : mite ( larva )
Clinical features :
Fever
Myalgia
Petichiae
Presence of Eschar - at the site of bite of the mite

Complication
ARDS
Ascitis
Peritonitis
Acute renal failure

Laboratory diagnosis
 Total count - leukocytosis
Weil Felix test positive for OxK
IgM ELISA
Immunoflurescence - antigen detection


Thursday, 15 May 2014

Cholera

Clinical features
Rice watery stool (painless)
Severe dehydration  with following features
Tready pulse
Sunken eyes
Skin turgor decreased
Low blood pressure
Causative agent: Vibrio cholerae

Laboratory diagnosis
Stool sample for culture

Stool sample inoculated into alkaline peptone water and hanging drop done after 6 hrs

Hanging drop showing darting motility is suggestive of Vibrio cholerae

Then the broth is plated onto TCBS and MacConkey
After overnight incubation
TCBS- yellow coloured colonies
MacConkey- non lactose fermenting colonies 
Further identification 
Gram stain - gram negative curved bacilli
Oxidase- positive 
Indole- positive
TSI- A/A no gas and no H2S 
Citrate - positive 
Urease- negative
Mannitol - fermented 

Cholera red reaction - innoculate peptone water with few colonies of Vibrio cholerae
After overnight  incubation add few drops of concentrated H2SO4 along the sides of the test tube a red colour ring is formed indicating nitrosoindole ring 

Confirmatory test
Agglutination with antisera
1. Polyvalent O
2. Ogawa
3. Inaba
4. Hikojima





Wednesday, 8 January 2014

Diagnosis of melioidosis

Melioidosis
The disease has a insidious onset, fever for more than 3 weeks, body pain and loss of appetite
Multiple abscess in the lungs, liver, kidney and soft tissue

Caused by - Burkholderia pseudomallei

Diagnosis
Mainly based on the culture of blood,urine or pus from abscess


Identification of the organism is based on the following
Grey moist colonies on blood agar with metallic sheen which has a crumbled paper appearance on 48 hrs of incubation
Gram stain reveals - safety pin appearance of the gram negative bacilli
Mac Conkey agar - non lactose fermenting colonies crumbled paper appearance 

Oxidase positive
Indole negative
TSI - k/k no gas,no H2S
Citrate positive
Urease negative
Mannitol motility- fermented, motile
OF glucose      Oxidatively utilised
OF mannitol              "
OF lactose                 "
OF maltose                "
Arginine de hydrolysed

Polymyxin B (300units) - resistant


Treatment
 Cotrimoxazole is the drug of choice given over a period of 6 months
In severe cases carbapenems are the drug of choice




Thursday, 2 January 2014

Diagnosis of Malaria

Clinical features
Fever with chills and rigors
Type of fever: Intermittent---
quotidian fever as an intermittent fever that occurs each day,
Tertian (fever every third day) 
quadrant(fever every 4 days)
Add caption

Splenomegaly
Haematuria
Jaundice

Caused by
P. vivax, P. falciparum, P. ovale, P. malariae
Transmitted by the bite of culex mosquito

Laboratory diagnosis
Peripheral smear - leishman's stain for the detection of the parasite ( gametocytes/ring forms and schizonts)
Multiple ring forms are seen specifically only in P.falciparum.


ICT test for detection of the LDH or Histidine rich protein II from blood
Quantitative Buffy coat test



Tuesday, 31 December 2013

diagnosis of anthrax

Patient usually presents with the following clinical features
Fever acute onset
Edema due to lymphaatic obstruction
Malignant eschar (vesicle ruptures , forms a ulcer and is covered by a scab which is black coloured and is surrounded by erythema ), the eschar is painless and the fluid inside is usually serosanguinous.(blood tinged)
Bleeding manifestaions
Meningitis usually haemorrhagic
Types of manifestation : cutaneous anthrax: which is usually non fatal resolves
                                     intestinal anthrax: due ingestion of the carcasses of the infected animal
                                     pulmonary antharax : due to inalation of the spores

Laboratory diagnosis
Blood culture is very sensitive- colony morphology- Blood agar- non haemolytic greyish dry colonies with serrated edges.
Nutrient agar - Medusa head appearance can be visualized in the edges of the colony with the help of the inverted microscope.
gram stain of the culture -thick gram positive bacilli with bamboo stick appearance
Demonstration of the capsule - polychrome methylene blue staining is done. (thick blue coloured bacilli surrounded by a pale pink coloured amorphous material)
Smear from the in-duration beneath eschar or the fluid from eschar
Smear shows thick gram positive bacilli with bamboo stick appearance
Direct fluroscent antibody testing detection of capsule
ELISA for toxin detection



Friday, 27 December 2013

Typhoid fever

Clinical features

Symptoms
Fever ( usually high grade)
        has a step ladder pattern i.e. temperature keeps on increasing and does not come down.
Vomiting
Abdominal pain

Signs
the patient has a coated tongue 
There is relative bradycardia( meaning high temperature but the heart rate is low)
hepatomegaly
The child usually presents with failure to thrive

Causative agent: Salmonella Typhi, Salmonella Paratyphi A, B, C

Diagnosis


Blood culture is the gold standard

positivity is 80% -90% in 1st week of fever
60%-70% in the 2nd week
<50% in 3rd week
 Bone marrow culture is most sensitive

Widal test Antibody detection( non- specific test)
it is positive by the end of 1st week
Urine culture is positive by the 3rd week of fever

Treatment
Third-generation cephalosporins are the drug of choice
(Tab.cefexime 200 mg twice daily for 7 days )

Complications
Intestinal hemorrhage and perforation
Septicemia
Meningitis








Dengue diagnosis

Diagnosis of Dengue  can made from the following signs and symptoms

Fever
Presence of headache, pain behind the eyes
Body ache, mayalgia
Abdominal pain
Vomiting especially in kids
Bleeding of gums
Presence of petichiae ( these are reddish spots seen in the skin due to low platelet count)

Mode of transmission:
Transmitted by the bite of mosquito Ades aegypti
Lab test
Do a platelet count
Value less than 100000 is suggestive
Do a card test (immunochromatographic test) for NS1 antigen and  IgM and IgG antibodies
To confirm: Some lab have the facility of ELISA for the detection of IgM which is more specific.

Treatment
its mainly symptomatic with IV fluids
platelet transfusion in case of low platelet count (usually when < 20000)