FARR Infectious Disease

Question 1

The three most common causes of fever of unknown origin

FUO

Answer 1

Infection, cancer, and autoimmune disease.

Question 2

Four signs and symptoms of streptococcal pharyngitis.

Answer 2

Fever, pharyngeal erythema, tonsillar exudate, lack of cough.

Question 3

A nonsuppurative complication of streptococcal infection that is not altered by treatment of 1° infection.

Answer 3

Postinfectious glomerulonephritis.

Question 4

Asplenic patients are particularly susceptible to these organisms.

Answer 4

Encapsulated organisms—pneumococcus, meningococcus,

Haemophilus influenzae, Klebsiella.

Question 5

The number of bacteria on a clean-catch specimen to diagnose a UTI.

Answer 5

105 bacteria/mL.

Question 6

Which healthy population is susceptible to UTIs?

Answer 6

Pregnant women. Treat this group aggressively because of potential complications.

Question 7

Nonpainful chancre.

Answer 7

1° syphilis.

Question 8

A “blueberry muffin” rash is characteristic of what congenital infection?

Answer 8

Rubella.

Question 9

Meningitis in neonates. Causes? Treatment?

Answer 9

Group B strep, E. coli, Listeria. Treat with gentamicin and ampicillin.

Question 10

Meningitis in infants. Causes? Treatment?

Answer 10

Pneumococcus, meningococcus, H. influenzae. Treat with cefotaxime and vancomycin.

Question 11

What should always be done prior to LP?

Answer 11

Check for ↑ ICP; look for papilledema.

Question 12

CSF findings:
■ Low glucose, PMN predominance
■ Normal glucose, lymphocytic predominance
■ Numerous RBCs in serial CSF samples
■ ↑ gamma globulins

Answer 12

Bacterial meningitis
Aseptic (viral) meningitis
Subarachnoid hemorrhage (SAH)
MS

Question 13

Initially presents with a pruritic papule with regional lymphadenopathy; evolves into a black eschar after 7–10 days. Treatment?

Answer 13

Cutaneous anthrax. Treat with penicillin G or ciprofloxacin.

Question 14

Findings in 3° syphilis.

Answer 14

Tabes dorsalis, general paresis, gummas, Argyll Robertson pupil, aortitis, aortic root aneurysms.

Question 15

Characteristics of 2° Lyme disease.

Answer 15

Arthralgias, migratory polyarthropathies, Bell’s palsy, myocarditis.

Question 16

Cold agglutinins.

Answer 16

Mycoplasma.

Question 17

A 24-year-old man presents with soft white plaques on his tongue and the back of his throat. Diagnosis? Workup? Treatment?

Answer 17

Candidal thrush. Workup should include an HIV test. Treat with nystatin oral suspension.

Question 18

Risk factors for pyelonephritis.

Answer 18

Pregnancy, vesicoureteral reflux, anatomic anomalies, indwelling catheters, kidney stones.

Question 19

Erythema migrans.

Answer 19

Lesion of 1° Lyme disease.

Question 20

Classic physical findings for endocarditis.

Answer 20

Fever, heart murmur, Osler’s nodes, splinter hemorrhages, Janeway lesions, Roth’s spots.

Question 21

Aplastic crisis in sickle cell disease.

Answer 21

Parvovirus B19

Question 22

Ring-enhancing brain lesion on CT with seizures.

Answer 22

Taenia solium (cysticercosis).

Question 23

Name the organism:
■ Branching rods in oral infection
■ Painful chancroid
■ Dog or cat bite
■ Gardener
■ Pregnant women with pets
■ Meningitis in adults
■ Meningitis in elderly
■ Alcoholic with pneumonia
■ “Currant jelly” sputum
■ Infection in burn victims
■ Osteomyelitis from foot wound puncture
■ Osteomyelitis in a sickle cell patient

Answer 23

Actinomyces israelii 
Haemophilus ducreyi 
Pasteurella multocida 
Sporothrix schenckii 
Toxoplasma gondii 
Neisseria meningitidis 
Streptococcus pneumoniae 
Klebsiella
Klebsiella 
Pseudomonas 
Pseudomonas 
Salmonella

Question 24

A 55-year-old man who is a smoker and a heavy drinker presents with a new cough and flulike symptoms. Gram stain shows no organisms; silver stain of sputum shows gram-negative rods. What is the diagnosis?

Answer 24

Legionella pneumonia.

Question 25

A middle-aged man presents with acute-onset monoarticular joint pain and bilateral Bell’s palsy. What is the likely diagnosis, and how did he get it? Treatment?

Answer 25

Lyme disease, Ixodes tick, doxycycline.

Question 26

A patient develops endocarditis three weeks after receiving a prosthetic heart valve. What organism is suspected?

Answer 26

S. aureus or S. epidermidis.